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CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
CULTURE 
 
 IN 
 
 Early Scotland 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES MACKINNOxN, M.A, Ph.D., 
 
 Aui/wro/ "South African Traits,'- and " Nhuan und seln Einjluss 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 WILLIAMS & NORGATE. 
 
 1892. 
 
X)A777 
 
 
 t • l' • •• 
 
 PRINTED AT 
 THE DARIEN I'RESS, BRISTO I'LACE, EUINBURGH. 
 
TO 
 
 WILHELM ONCKEN, 
 
 DOCTOR OF THILOSOPHY, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF GIESSEN, AND ONE OF GERMANY'S MOST DISTINGUISHED 
 
 CONTEMPORARY HISTORIANS, 
 
 A SMALL TRIBUTE 
 
 TO THE WORTH OF THE MAN, THE INSPIRING POWER OF THE 
 PROFESSOR, AND THE WELL-EARNED REPUTATION OF 
 THE EDITOR OF, AND CONTRIBUTOR TO, 
 THE MONUMENTAL WORK, 
 
 '■'■ Alhemeine Geschichte in Einzel-Darstelhingen." 
 
 c 
 
 ^32148 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The subject treated in the following chapters embraces 
 the Prehistoric, Roman, and Celtic Christian Culture of 
 Scotland. Though North Britain was not known by the 
 name of Scotland before the eleventh century, and the term 
 Scotia must always be understood of Ireland previous to 
 that time, I have retained it as most convenient, while not 
 limiting myself exactly to the modern territorial boundary. 
 As I explain further on, I use the word culture in a wide 
 sense to denote anything of interest in the social, religious, 
 and intellectual condition of a people. I have in a critical, 
 yet, I trust, unbiassed spirit, gathered my material from 
 every source fitted to throw light on what is in some 
 portions of it an obscure subject. In treating such portions 
 I have largely used the illustrative method, aiming to set 
 before the reader a suggestive general picture of a state of 
 things with which the want of sufficient information baffles 
 a detailed acquaintance. Happily, however, the testimony 
 of archaeology, of folk-lore, and of the older historians such 
 as Bxda, Gildas, Adamnan, and others, who have noticed 
 ancient Scotland, has enabled me to deal in a more direct 
 fashion with other periods in the culture of our forefathers. 
 Happily, too, there are not wanting outstanding figures 
 within the pale of the historic epoch, treated in the second 
 and third books, whose lives may be taken as an epitome of 
 the culture of their age. While giving in the footnotes 
 the authorities on whom I base some statement or conclu- 
 sion, I have refrained from lingering in the text over 
 intricate and dry processes of archaeological or historical 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 reasoning, and have striven to render the story of our past 
 readable as well as instructive. This merit cannot be 
 claimed, with the rarest exceptions, for the treatises on 
 the history or arch.neology of Scotland, which are irksome 
 reading to all but the knowledge-thirsty student. Whilst 
 I acknowledge my obligations to the scholars whose in- 
 dustry and erudition have done much for the elucidation 
 of our early civilisation, I claim the indulgence of the 
 reader in making an independent attempt to portray the 
 culture of early Scotland in the sense of the German 
 " cultur." In regard both to the method of treatment 
 adopted, and the conclusions come to, I would remark, in 
 the words of a great modern English historian,* that " in 
 fairness the author has a right to demand that his critic 
 should have tried to put himself in his place, and look at 
 the subject from his standpoint." 
 
 * Stubbs, " Lectures on Mediaeval and Modern History," p. 60. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK I.— PREHISTORIC CULTURE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I.— INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Culture and its survival — The dawn of written record — The 
 archives of the soil and their interpretation — Principle of 
 arrangement — Intervening stages — Intermingling of 
 objects — The interest and importance of old things, . i 
 
 CHAPTER II.— THE SAVAGE. 
 
 Development, not degradation, the course of man — In- 
 terrupted by relapse or decay — Records of primeval 
 British savage in the gravel beds of Ice Age — Conditions 
 of life — Beginning of history of art — Architecture of 
 of Later Stone Age — Cairns and their contents — Their 
 builders — Additional evidence — The living representative 
 of the Stone Age savage — The qualities with which he is 
 credited, ....... 9 
 
 CHAPTER III.— WORK AND PROGRESS. 
 
 Development represented by Bronze — Ethnology of new race — 
 Non-survival of human dwellings — Stone circles the 
 silent monuments of forgotten history— Their fictitious 
 interest — Family or district cemeteries — Their signi- 
 ficance from standpoint of culture — Moral anomalies — 
 Mode of life — Abundance of gold — Community rude, 
 but influence of elevating forces, . . . .19 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— ARCHITECTURE AND WAR. 
 
 Advent of the Celt — Celtic art — The light-bearing dawn of 
 history — Architectural remains — Human dwellings — The 
 brochs and their inhabitants— Lake dwellings and earth 
 houses, and their occupants — Inferences from these 
 structures in harmony with first historic glimpses — The 
 significance of their defensive character in connection 
 with tribal division — Effort to maintain the community 
 and the home — Tales of Greek romancers — Barbarian, 
 not savage culture — The reality of things, . . 32 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER v.— CELTIC PAGANISM. 
 
 l'A(,E 
 
 No written literature in prehistoric times — Existence of religious 
 culture in earlier ages — Religious culture of pagan Celts 
 — A priestridden people — Patriotism of Druids and their 
 suppression by the Romans — The British hierarchy 
 in Tacitus — The Celtic Pantheon — Superstitious remains 
 of paganism — Burns's "Hallowe'en" — Moral power of 
 Druidic cult— Moral condition of British Celts — Tacitus's 
 estimate of northern tribes, . . . .48 
 
 BOOK II.— ROMAN CULTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— THE PLASTIC TOUCH OF ROME. 
 
 Scotland as part of Roman empire — Relations of Britain to 
 Rome — Heterogeneous character of settlers — Roman con- 
 quest at first a beneficial revolution — Transformation 
 effected in South and North — Hostile relations between 
 Roman and Pict — Edinburgh a Roman settlement— 
 Along the Wall of Antoninus — Traces of the refined 
 products of Italy —The "Pompeii" of Britain — In- 
 tellectual culture — Greek culture in the Roman world — 
 Travelling libraries — Material and social condition of 
 Roman Britain — The dark side of the picture — How 
 colony regarded — Misgovernment and character — In- 
 direct influence of Rome beyond Forth — Long con- 
 tinued hostility, ...... 65 
 
 CHAPTER II.— THE BROKEN GODS AND 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Variety of religions — Toleration — Religious earnestness — 
 Comprehensiveness of the polytheist — Cosmopolitanism 
 — Religion the nurse of Art- Intolerant treatment of 
 Christianity — Displaced paganism, perpetuated Empire- 
 Its power — Stoicism as competitor — Paucity of Christian 
 relics in Roman Britain — Extravagance of legend — 
 The Fathers and British Church— No national Church, . 85 
 
 CHAPTER III.— NINIAN : HIS AGE AND HIS INFLUENCE. 
 
 Bicda's reference to Ninian — Legendary lives — The spell 
 wielded by Rome — Influence of Roman bishop in West — 
 British Church affected by this ecclesiastical influence — 
 The monastic movement — Missionary spirit — St Martin 
 at .Marmouticr — Key to the chronology of Ninian's life 
 — Gaulish artisans in Britain — Candida Casa- Th 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 character of his age—Extent of his labours— Political 
 significance — His mission a practical inspiration — 
 His teaching — Blended with superstition — Date of 
 death, ••••... icx) 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— TWO CENTURIES OF CLAIR-OBSCURE. 
 
 Still in touch with Roman culture — Gildas — Traditional and 
 historic importance — " Concerning the Destruction of 
 Britain "^Saxon invasion, and the struggles of rival 
 chiefs — Effects on culture — Candida Casa, the first 
 Scottish university— Bardic poetry — Gcrmanus and the 
 British Church— Gildas on the condition of the clergy — 
 Relapse into paganism in the North— Indirect influence 
 of St I'atrick— Arthur as culture hero— Kentigern— 
 Biography by Joceline— Bishop of Strathclyde— Com- 
 munity at Glasgow — Retirement to Wales — Estimate of 
 reputation and influence — Pope Gregory on the decay 
 of Rome, . . . . . . .121 
 
 BOOK III.— CELTIC CHRISTIAN CULTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— COLUMBA AND lONA. 
 
 Celtic culture and the barbarism of Roman empire — Political 
 state of Ireland — The monastery a national institution — 
 Columba and Adamnan — Royal descent and boyhood — 
 Activity in Ireland — His missionary pilgrimage to 
 lona, an act of penance? — Monastery at lona— King 
 Brude— Conversion and Druid opposition — Columba's 
 life rich in significant incident— Plan of operations- 
 Monastic churches— Contemporary missionaries from 
 Ireland — Estimate of results— Cormac and the spirit of 
 adventure — The community at lona — Intellectual culture 
 of school — The personality of Columba, . . . 145 
 
 CHAPTER II.— THE CELTIC MISSIONARY IN 
 NORTHUMBRIA. 
 
 Columba's mission continued and consolidated — lona and the 
 outside world — Teutonic conquest of Northumbria — 
 Norseman or Saxon ? — Culture of invader — The spirit of 
 freedom — Reverence for the supernatural — The Witen- 
 agemot in favour of Christianity — Liberality and saga- 
 city of Roman Church— Penda and Oswald— Aidan at 
 Lindisfarne — King and bishop — Renewed disorder — 
 Oswin and Aidan— Beeda's tribute— Penda as type of 
 pagan Anglo-Saxon chief— Monastic establishments 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 I-AGE 
 
 between Forth and H umber — Anglo-Saxon youth and 
 Irish seminaries — Intercourse between North and Con- 
 tinent, and revival of Roman culture — Friction be- 
 tween Roman and British Churches — Controversy in 
 Northumbria — Importance for intellectual life of period — 
 St Peter versus Columba — Baida's appreciation of the 
 worth of Celtic monks — Toleration incompatible with 
 spirit of age — Decision in favour of unity, instructive 
 political lesson for Saxon and Celt — Brings North into 
 close touch with broader, more refined culture — Trace in 
 Adamnan of more pliable spirit at lona towards it — 
 His literary distinction — King Nechtan— Rome at length 
 conquers Grampians, . . . . .172 
 
 CHAPTER III.— THE MONK OF MELROSE. 
 
 Life of Cuthbert — An epitome of Celtic Christian culture — His 
 boyhood, and quickness of fancy — Student under 
 Boisel at Melrose — His contemporay Wilfrid — Almoner 
 at Ripon — Cuthbert as wandering preacher — At Lindis- 
 farne — Anchorite on the islet of Fame — Morbid 
 spiritualism — Practical effects— Cuthbert as bishop of 
 diocese of Lindisfarne — National calamity — Death, and 
 last words, . . . . , . .199 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— DEGENERATION AND DECAY. 
 
 Meagre literary sources for history of Celtic period — Political 
 condition of the country — Ravages of the Norsemen — 
 Martyrdom of Blaithmac and Adrian — Seizure of 
 ecclesiastical property and disorganisation of Church — 
 Interruption of connection with Ireland — Caddroe — The 
 Culdees — Roman ecclesiastical revival in the eleventh 
 and twelfth centuries, . . . . .215 
 
 CHAPTER v.— THE CELTIC MONASTERY. 
 
 Testimony of archaeology— Architectural remains — The Celtic 
 monk on the Continent — Monastery as literary work- 
 shop — Manuscripts and art — The monkish sculptor — 
 Disciple of the scribe — Illustrative of the life of 
 period — Object-lesson in religion — Sculptor as moralist 
 — Ogham inscriptions, ..... 227 
 
BOOK I, 
 
 ? ''•>'',,' 
 
 PREHISTORIC CULTURS.^..»,.o, . .', 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 I USE the word culture in a general sense. It em- 
 braces the mental condition of man and its modes 
 of expression, — whatever, in short, is of interest and 
 importance in the condition of a people. It refers to its 
 intellectual and moral state, its sense of art or its manual 
 skill, its customs and social institutions, &c., as far as these 
 ma\- be inferred, or have been handed down by written 
 record. The term is usually applied to denote intellectual 
 acquisition or refinement, and viewed in this sense ma)^ 
 appear entirely out of its element in conjunction with the 
 words barbarian or savage. It may seem, at first sight, to 
 be degrading gold with a coating of tin. But culture need 
 not be the equivalent for high intellectual refinement or 
 attainment, though it has come to have this special meaning 
 in literary phraseology. The history of the race, as of 
 the individual, is a history of development, and ever}- stage 
 of civilisation indicates a grade of culture, however low it 
 may be. There'is such a thing, then, as primitive culture, 
 and the manner in which the primitive man thinks and 
 acts is truly a phase of that growth by which the highly 
 refined man has reached maturity. The culture of to-day 
 rests indeed on that of primeval ages, and it is not difficult 
 to find in the customs, the traditions that have survived 
 from the remote past, the traces of its presence and its 
 
 A 
 
2 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 influence. " Survival in culture," says Dr Tylor, " placing 
 all along the course of advancing civilisation waymarks full 
 of meaning to those who can decipher their signs, even 
 now sets up in our midst primitive monuments of barbaric 
 thought and life."* We ma)- feel a vast gulf between 
 ourselves and our primeval ancestors, who lived in caves 
 and hunted with the flint arrowhead, and in many respects 
 wc cannot bc^&aid, to be related by any bond of s>-mpath\-. 
 The nifluences' which shape our thoughts are largel)- 
 different, for .i-nstance ; •still there is the race connection, 
 there i-s the human spirit, in whose workings a real though 
 rude soul reflects itself Genius there may not be in our 
 sense of the term, but reason certainly, and we must be 
 shortsighted and supercilious to a degree if we can perceive 
 no trace of our likeness in the reflection. 
 
 In the case of a highly civilised country, the indications 
 of this lower culture must be looked for in the archives of 
 the soil, in those prehistoric deposits of objects found in 
 the graves of the dead, or left on purpose or by accident 
 in the sand or the moss by the living. The dawn of 
 written record broke comparatively late for many peoples, 
 and beyond their first appearance in histor)- there lie long 
 ages of silence, whose secrets are but meagrely and dimly 
 disclosed by the researches of the archaeologist. This is 
 markedly the case with Britain, l}-ing, as it does, in a 
 remote north-western corner of Europe, far from the scene 
 of the earlier civilisations. Though not unknown to the 
 Greeks of the time of Pytheas, the Humboldt of antiquity, 
 who visited it and the islands northward of it in the middle 
 of the fourth century is.C, and connected by traffic with 
 the Greek merchants of Massilia (Marseilles), the informa- 
 tion derived from historic sources is extremely fragmentary 
 before the Roman invasion. It is not indeed till the age 
 of Domitian that the pregnant pen of Tacitus, in describing 
 the campaigns of his father-in-law, Agricola, touches on 
 the martial tribes of Caledonia, and, unfortunately, he has 
 not immortalised their manners in the same systematic 
 and graj^hic way that he has those of the Germans. 
 From this time to the advent of the Christian missionary 
 * " Primitive Culture,' p. 21. 
 
ARCHIVES OF THE SOIL. 3 
 
 we get occasional glimpses of the barbarian inhabitants of 
 Northern J3ritain from foreign authors like Dion Cassius 
 and Ammianus Marcellinus, which wc shall notice later on. 
 Of this written information we shall make use as tending- 
 to some extent to reflect the prehistoric culture with which 
 we purpose to deal in this book, but for the ages which 
 preceded Roman governor and Christian missionary we 
 must have recourse chiefly, as I have said, to the archives 
 of the soil. These afford us, however, a varied and elo- 
 quent tale of the peoples that have successively colonised 
 our northern land in prehistoric times, or are found con- 
 temporaneously occupying it during its earliest historic 
 period. The surface of the country may, in fact, be com- 
 pared to a manuscript in which the record of the culture 
 of many nations, who have marked their presence, if not 
 with pen and ink, in the less coherent but still eloquent 
 characters of their weapons and implements, their monu- 
 ments and ornaments, is strangely interwritten. Finn and 
 Goidel, Brython and Roman, Saxon and Norseman, and 
 may be others long forgotten, have contributed their share 
 to this record, which the soil of the country has preserved. 
 We may not, in the shadowy light that falls on it, especially 
 in considering the remains of the remoter cultures of the 
 Stone and Bronze i\ges, hit on the right interpretation of 
 this intricate record ; but the writing is there, and our 
 archaeologists can at least claim that they have done their 
 best to decipher it. And not without result. We may 
 hesitate, for instance, before accepting the evidences of 
 Phoenician influence, and an elaborate Druidic cult, which 
 Colonel Leslie Forbes* finds in the mysteriously inscribed 
 blocks of stone in Aberdeenshire, but to any man of trained 
 observation, the objects which the primeval mourner placed 
 in the graves of the departed so far explain themselves, 
 and Sir Daniel Wilson, Dr Anderson, Dr Monro, and 
 others have interpreted those and other prehistoric remains, 
 in their monumental works on Scottish archaeology, with 
 an enthusiasm tempered by a scientific spirit. Their 
 inferences as to the social condition and moral character, 
 for instance, of the men who used the implements and 
 * "The Early Races of Scotland.' 
 
4 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 weapons and erected the cairns and stone circles of the 
 Stone and Bronze periods, seem to me too flattering at 
 times (of which more anon), and the vagueness that hangs 
 like a dreamy haze over the remote past will not be 
 disenchanted even by enthusiasm and science. But facts 
 speak for themselves and tell us something definite, whether 
 our general conclusions be right or wrong. 
 
 An important question suggests itself at the outset. 
 Can the mass of objects recovered from their lair under- 
 neath the surface of the soil be arranged in intelligible 
 order, so as to yield some sort of connected stor}- ? Is 
 there a means of distinguishing objects representing a more 
 remote culture from those which may represent a less 
 remote one ? A gradual succession of date is of course 
 impossible where no written record exists to guide us, but 
 there is a principle of arrangement which, in some degree, 
 supplies its place. It is as simple as it is obvious. The 
 method is just to proceed, as a rule, from the ruder things 
 to the less rude, from the simple to the less simple, from 
 the stone or bone which came more easily to the hand of 
 primitive man to the metal which required for its produc- 
 tion a skill and observation gained by increased experience. 
 The tribes of the human race, which occupy the lowest 
 level of civilisation in our modern world, have been found 
 to be those who worked or hunted with instruments 
 fashioned of bone or stone. Wherever there is a knowledge 
 of the metals, the degree of culture is correspondingly 
 higher. This order of development is thus as historically 
 certain as it is intuitively probable. But there still remains 
 the question as to the order in the use of the metals. 
 Here again the amount of skill and experience necessary 
 for their production suggests the answer. The knowledge 
 and use of copper and tin must precede the manufacture 
 of bronze, which marks one of the epochs in the history of 
 inventive genius, and which forms the natural stepping- 
 stone to a discovery still more significant in the history of 
 culture — the smelting of iron. It is not necessarily evident 
 that the manufacture of iron in every case succeeded that 
 of bronze. It is conceivable that the former process may 
 have been discovered by some sagacious individual among 
 
INTERVENING STAGES. 5 
 
 a people to whom the fusion of copper with tin was 
 unknown. The modern savage, we know, passed in many 
 instances, by contact with the European merchant or 
 colonist, from the use of stone or bone or wood to 
 that of iron without any intervening stage. But it is 
 certain that the possession of iron instruments denotes 
 a hicfher condition of culture than the use of the less 
 serviceable alloy of copper and tin, and we may safely 
 regard the conventional divisions of prehistoric time 
 into the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages as accurately 
 expressing progressive stages in the culture of our insular 
 ancestors. 
 
 Of course, there may have been, probably were, inter- 
 vening stages corresponding to the use of other materials 
 besides these three. Articles of tin, copper, and lead are 
 also found amid the remains of our prehistoric insular 
 culture. Among the American Indians, tribes have been 
 found using only instruments of copper, and axes of this 
 material existed in Scotland, Italy, and Hungary. Hero- 
 dotus informs us that the Massagetas, a people living near 
 the Caspian Sea, had no iron or silver, but plenty of gold 
 and copper. Their lances and axes were of copper, and 
 their caps and belts were decorated with golden orna- 
 ments.* It is more than likel)^ that in a country where 
 copper was not unplentiful, and which is easily worked, 
 there was a time when the awakening intelligence of the 
 savage fashioned instruments of this material, or used it as 
 he did the gold and tin, for making the ornaments with 
 which he decorated himself But copper, tin, or lead do 
 not singly possess the qualities which go to produce a 
 serviceable instrument, and thus we do not find them in the 
 abundance which lends such a typical distinction to the 
 objects made of iron, bronze, or stone. These divisions 
 may thus not be quite exhaustive, but they are not 
 arbitrary, like many of the divisions which the historian 
 makes when dealing with written record, and discussing 
 the progress of events or the growth of institutions. In 
 these we may sometimes perceive the reflection of opinion 
 
 * Herodotus, i., c. 215 : "They make great use of gold and copper : . . . 
 they use no silver or iron." 
 
6 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 rather than the indication of fact. But stone, bronze, and 
 iron mark with unmistakable emphasis so many stages in 
 human experience and progress. 
 
 This principle of arrangement, according to these three 
 prevailing types of material, may be objected to on the 
 ground that, though we may separate them on the shelves 
 of a museum into their respective periods, they are often 
 found together in the same deposit, as if the man who 
 owned an iron sword, also wore a bronze armring, and 
 used a stone hammer or drinking cup. It is very probable 
 that he did, nay, it is certain. We must guard against the 
 mistake of supposing that the objects embraced by these 
 divisions stand out distinct and unconnected. The use of 
 bronze did not result in the discontinuance of the use of 
 stone, nor that of iron in the disappearance of its two 
 predecessors. The advance of the human race is by 
 gradual development rather than by distinct leaps, and 
 while there is progress by new departures, there is the 
 survival of the old along with it. Our modern culture, as 
 I have already remarked, comes not merely from, say, 
 the resplendent antiquity of Athens or Rome, but from the 
 days as well when what is now the rush-covered mass of 
 stones and mud in some bog or " mere " was a lake 
 dwelling, and from a past reaching even further back. 
 But there is a means of deciding whether weapons or 
 implements of stone, bronze, or iron recovered from the 
 soil really belong to the age when this material furnished 
 the means of making war or obtaining sustenance. When 
 we find only fragments of stone tools in a grave, we may 
 safely take this as an indication that the mourners who 
 placed them there were unacquainted with anything else. 
 Or should we light upon some cemetery of the Bronze 
 Age, and dig up a collection of bronze weapons and 
 ornaments, with perhaps an urn bearing a peculiar stj'le of 
 ornamentation, we may quite as safely conclude that they 
 mark the last resting-place of one who fought with weapons 
 of bronze, but who had never wielded a sword or an axe 
 of iron. So too, — apart from the objects themselves, — 
 the t\-pe of structure in w hich thc\- are found, or of the art 
 by which they are decorated, enables the archa-^ologist to 
 
OLD THINGS. 7 
 
 denote what stage in the culture of our forefathers these 
 things represent. 
 
 These old things, which thus arrange themselves in the 
 cases or on the shelves of an antiquarian museum, like that 
 of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland at Edinburgh, 
 are replete with living interest, when we try to realise their 
 importance. For one thing, they come to us as messengers 
 from the dead, because, as I have already observed, the 
 workers of these remote periods, living as it were at the 
 back of time, wrote the outlines of their existence with the 
 weapons or implements they fashioned. Be it remembered, 
 too, in considering this message in bronze or stone or iron, 
 that the effort of skill necessary to conceive and produce a 
 gracefully fashioned and chastely decorated urn, for 
 example, is no contemptible evidence of that intelligence 
 in the individual which is the secret spring of progress in 
 the community. And these things appeal not merely to 
 the speculative reason, but to the imagination as well. 
 They reflect upon the dim canvas of the remote past a 
 picture which is not without its fascination, all the more 
 that it is so unlike the world in which we live. We feel as 
 if looking into the unseen, not the to be, but that which has 
 been and vanished. The finding of some article, it may be 
 thousands of years old, three or four feet beneath the 
 present surface of the soil, is an unveiling of the past akin 
 to that which we strive, during moments of longing or 
 reflection, to wring from the vague future, and lends an 
 interest to some waste and barren spot more real than poet 
 inspired could give it. Truly the archaeologist has his 
 hours of romance, and if we catch him sometimes dreaming 
 rather than soberly reasoning, we must not forget that 
 dreams now and then foreshadow or reflect a truth. At all 
 events, his inductions add to the poetry of the past. Sir 
 Daniel Wilson,* for instance, finds in the now desolate 
 hillsides of parts of Argyleshire indications of a degree of 
 cultivation having existed at some former period far beyond 
 what is exhibited in that locality at the present day. And 
 such evidences of ancient population and industry are, he 
 informs us, by no means confined to the remote districts of 
 Prehistoric Annals of Scotland," p. 231. 
 
 » a 
 
8 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 ancient Dalriada. They occur in man\- parts of Scotland, 
 startling the believer in the unmitigated barbarism of the 
 countr}-, prior to the mediaeval era, with the evidence of a 
 state of prosperity and civilisation at some remote epoch, 
 the date of which has yet to be ascertained. Another 
 significant glimpse of this kind, to mention but one more 
 example, was afforded by the discovery of two pairs of celt 
 moulds in the parish of Rosskeen, Ross-shire. " The site 
 of this interesting discovery," .says the same author,* " is 
 about four miles inland, on the north side of the Cromarty 
 Firth, on a moor which the proprietor is reclaiming from 
 the wild waste and restoring once more to the profitable 
 service of man. In the progress of this good work 
 abundant evidence demonstrated the fact that the same 
 area, from which the accumulated vegetable moss of many 
 centuries is now being removed, had formed the scene of a 
 bus)', intelligent, and industrious population." 
 
 * Pp. 223, 224. 
 
PROGRESSION, NOT DEGRADATION. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SAVAGE. 
 
 WE may, without being guilty of calumniating the 
 dead, pronounce our ancestors of the Stone Age 
 savages. However eloquently the archaeologist 
 may draw pictures of their skill or their taste, the fact will 
 not be blinked. The evidence, such as it is, reveals, for the 
 most part, a state of wretchedness and rudeness compatible 
 only with the culture of a people at a low stage of develop- 
 ment. The tradition of the degradation of the human race 
 from a high condition of primeval civilisation to that of 
 savages, has given place, in the view of thinking men, to 
 the inference that the progress of the race has rather been 
 from a lower to a higher culture. Archaeological and 
 anthropological investigation into the dim past of the race 
 discloses no paradise, no golden age in which an elastic 
 fancy has fondly placed the early ancestors of a people. 
 Intellectual and material progress, not degradation from 
 some long lost culture, is the verdict of history. "The notion 
 of the intellectual state of savages," it has been well said,* 
 "as resulting from decay of previous high knowledge, seems 
 to have as little evidence in its favour as that stone celts are 
 the degenerate successors of Sheffield axes, or earthen grave 
 mounds degraded copies of Egyptian pyramids." There 
 have undoubtedly been cases of relapse. W'hat we may 
 find in the individual or the community we find also in the 
 race at large. Misfortune may reduce many a tribe in the 
 scale of civilisation, and in this sense there has been 
 degradation. The Bushman, who was pressed into the 
 barren wilds along the south-western coast of the Cape by 
 invading tribes from the north-east, was compelled to 
 become the victim of a wilder and less prosperous existence 
 than when he dwelt in the more fertile regions, of which he 
 was dispossessed. There are instances, too, in which a 
 
 * Tylor, "Primitive Culture," p. 6S. 
 
10 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 more civilised race has left the monuments of its culture as 
 the witness to its memory when a less civilised one has 
 taken its place, as in the case of the mound builders of the 
 Mississippi.* Civilisations too have flourished and passed 
 away, and the degenerate posterity of a people has more than 
 once survived, in puny impotence, the grandeur and strength 
 of their forefathers. But it does not follow from this that 
 the people, which is found in a rude state of culture, has 
 as a rule fallen back from a comparatively high state. 
 Where there is no evidence of the existence of a high 
 culture, we are not entitled to reason from the emblems of 
 savagery that have come down to us, say from the remote 
 Stone Age, that any higher culture preceded that which 
 they indicate. Britain may have been the scene of a 
 culture as high as that of ancient Egypt or Babylon, but 
 there is nothing to indicate this in its prehistoric annals ; 
 they reveal, on the other hand, the progression, which is 
 observable in the history of the human race in general — 
 from savagery to barbarism and from barbarism to civilisa- 
 tion. If Roman civilisation was swept away by the rude 
 Pict and the fierce Saxon, the disturbance was but tempor- 
 ary, and new growth succeeded the decay and destruction 
 of the old. 
 
 It is in the drifts and gravel beds of the Age of Ice that 
 we must seek the records of the primeval British savage. 
 What archaeologists like Prestwick,t Evans, and others, 
 discovered in the gravel beds of the Somme — hand-shaped 
 flints embedded along with the remains of animals — was 
 subsequently found in other valley deposits in Europe. 
 The course of the Thames, for example, has )-ielded a 
 considerable number of these flint implements, and the 
 period of their use may be vaguely estimated by the differ- 
 ence in the level of the river then and now, ranging from 
 between 80 and 1 20 feet. The animal remains in these gravel 
 deposits include the bones of the mammoth, elephant, 
 rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, bear, elk, stag, and wild 
 ox, so that the first trace of the human species is found in 
 association with existing animal nature — that is, when 
 
 * Cf. Mitchell, " I'ast in ilio rreseiU," lect. i. 
 + Arclueolugical Jounm!, vol. xlviii. 
 
PALAEOLITHIC AGK. II 
 
 the animals of an earlier period had disappeared, or 
 nearly so. 
 
 The period to which such relics belong has been 
 variously named the Palaeolithic, the Early Stone, or 
 Drift Aee, and their absence in North Britain has been 
 assumed to indicate* that this region was still icebound and 
 uninhabitable. To my mind, however, this is a subject on 
 which there is still room to make allowance for the chances 
 of future discovery, and the presence in the north of objects, 
 such as rude stone implements and canoes deeply embedded 
 in the soil, of the same character as those found on the sites 
 of human habitation in the south, suggests a date remote 
 enough to be contemporary with the man of the Drift or 
 Early Stone Age. Shell mounds have in fact been dis- 
 covered on the shores of the Moray Firth. Those of 
 Denmark, where they are very numerous and are known as 
 Kjokkenmoddings (kitchen middens), — the refuse heaps of 
 a people who lived on shell-fish, — are assigned to the Early 
 Stone Ao-e. Those of the north of Scotland are, however, 
 believed by Lubbock t to belong to a later time. 
 
 The conditions of life in a climate arctic in its severity 
 could only have admitted a hard and cheerless existence. 
 The dwelling of the savage would be the cave ■; or rock 
 shelter, his diet the wild animals and shell-fish. The few 
 tools and weapons, with which he sought to aid himself in 
 the struggle for existence, would consist of flint knives, stone 
 hammers, adzes, and implements for working in leather. 
 The imagination of a Milton might have revelled in describ- 
 ing the rigours of such an existence, and one involuntarily 
 thinks of that grim passage § in which the miseries of the 
 region beyond the river Lethe are pictured. 
 " Beyond this flood a foreign continent 
 Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms 
 Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land 
 Thaws not, but gathers heap and ruin seems 
 Of ancient pile, all else deep snow and ice." 
 * Archaologii-al Journal, vol. xlviii. t " Prehistoric Times," p. 233. 
 
 t Hence called also the Cave Period. The remains of implements and 
 animal and human bones show that this was one mode of human dwelling in 
 the remote Stone Age. A notable example in Britain occurs at Brixham. near 
 Torquay. 
 
 § "Paradise Lost," ii., p. 107 (Masson's edition). 
 
12 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 Yet it is a remarkable fact that it is with these savage 
 tribes of the Early Stone Age that the history of art com- 
 mences. Ornaments in the .shape of beads and amulets 
 have been found in the gravel deposits, as we should expect 
 among even the rudest tribes. "The passion for self- 
 ornamentation," says Lubbock,* " seems to prevail among 
 the lowest, as much as, if not more than, among the more 
 civilised races of mankind." But we should not have looked 
 for the representations of animals with so much spirit, so 
 much likeness to their objects in them, as in the group of 
 reindeer scratched with the point of a flint on a piece of 
 bone found in the cave of La Madeleine in the Dordogne. 
 The fact that they have called forth the admiration of men 
 of culture in our day, says a great deal for the artistic 
 instinct of the cave-dweller, who maintained the struggle 
 for life at a time when the reindeer and perhaps the 
 mammoth roamed in the south of France, and a whale or a 
 canoe might have stranded several miles inland from the 
 present shore of the Solway or the Forth. I remember 
 being struck during my travels in Southern Africa with the 
 animal figures which the degraded Bushman had traced with 
 red clay on the face of some rock. Still such a fact in itself 
 would not lead us to infer a high culture, though it implies 
 a certain creditable capacity. The Age of Bronze, for 
 instance, was certainly an advance on that of Stone, but 
 the imitative faculty seems to have lain dormant. 
 
 As we must turn to the Early Stone Age for the first 
 specimens of art known to man, so we must seek in the 
 Neolithic or Later Stone Period for the time-worn monu- 
 ments of his primitive architecture, at least within our 
 island. It .seems meet that it should be from the graves of 
 a loner-forgotten era that this knowledge should come to us. 
 No structure remains which can be assigned as the abodes of 
 the living in the Stone or Bronze Ages in Scotland, except 
 perhaps that extremely ancient form of dwelling — the 
 crannog or lake dwelling. Our remote forefathers seem to 
 have been more concerned to perpetuate the memory of the 
 departed than to i)reserve the haunts of the living. Their 
 dwellings must have been of a slight and peri.shablc 
 * "Origin of Civilisation," p. 71. 
 
MAUSOLEUMS OF STONE ACE. 1 3 
 
 character ; but the mounds or cairns in which they placed 
 their dead have withstood the changes of many centuries, 
 and \-ielded instructive results to the zeal and acuteness of 
 archaioloeists like the late Mr Rhind and Dr Anderson. 
 These huge masses of stone, covered over now by a layer 
 of turf and earth, extending over the whole area of Britain, 
 but in Scotland most numerous in Caithness, Orkney, and 
 Argyle, have been found to be built upon a plan, which only 
 the transformation of age has concealed from the passer-by. 
 Though but the charnel houses of a rude and hoary antiquity, 
 they represent the rudiments of the architectural art which 
 these forefathers of ours had learned, and the interest attach- 
 ing to them as such is increased by the presence of an internal 
 chamber in which objects used by the living as well as the 
 remains of the dead have been deposited. Some of those 
 explored in Caithness are horned, that is, they have two 
 hornlike projections at either end, but they all bear indica- 
 tions of having been constructed by the same race, or 
 within the same period, by the ever-recurring feature of the 
 vaulted chamber, usually divided into three compartments,* 
 with a passage giving access from the outside, and by the 
 character of the articles found in them. These included 
 human and animal bones (the former sometimes preserved 
 in a round-bottomed, rudely ornamented urn), both burnt 
 and unburnt. In one the presence of thirty skulls was 
 inferred from the fragments picked up. The flooring was, 
 indeed, found in most cases to be composed of clay mixed 
 with bone ashes, and the intermingling of the remains of 
 animals such as the ox, the deer, the sheep, the pig, the 
 horse, the dog, prove that the funeral rites of the people of 
 the Later Stone Age included a rude banquet, supposing that 
 they were not placed there as food for the dead, who were 
 apparently equipped for their journey into the unseen with 
 the stone axe and flint-pointed arrows, also found among 
 the remains.-f- These rude mausoleums have figured a good 
 
 * Those in Orkney show a slightly difterent plan of chamber. It consists 
 of one apartment with a number of cells opening oft' it. 
 
 t The Stone Age in Scandinavia reveals much the same characteristics as 
 in Scotland. It.s relics in both countries, such as domestic animals, potter)-, 
 instruments, appear to resemble each other. See a good account of Scandi- 
 navia in Du Chaillu, "Viking Age," i., chap. viii. 
 
14 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 deal in popular tradition and mediaival tale as the haunt of 
 the fierce dragon, which it was the boast of the Norseman, who 
 has left the traces of his daring in the runes scratched on 
 the walls of that of Maeshowe in Orkne>-, to have overcome 
 when searching for the treasures it was fabled to guard. 
 But to us their interest consists in the idea which they 
 enable us to form of their builders. They were unacquainted 
 with the use of bronze or iron. They emplo)-ed no tool to 
 shape the material which the)- used in building, nor mortar 
 to cement it together. But they were skilful enough to 
 erect a rough beehive-roofed chamber as a resting-place for 
 their dead, and to mark them by huge masses of stone, 
 built on a well-defined plan, which have survived throughout 
 long ages the less durable abodes of the living. Tis after 
 all a creditable performance to produce something, whatever 
 it be, — however rude and unshapely, — that will endure for 
 several thousands of years. Is there not somewhat of the 
 infinite longing of the soul in this unsightly mass of stones ? 
 A type, too, of the " something attempted, something done," 
 which is one of the most fruitful sentiments of the human 
 heart, — an expression of the ambition to realise one's 
 strength in the contemplation of the work of one's hands. 
 Very impressive, too, is it not, as the mute witness of the 
 thoughts of men engulfed in eternal silence? All the world 
 is one country, as the Italian proverb has it, and a con- 
 ception like this, however rude its expression, reminds us 
 that so has it been from of )'ore, for the same soul moves in 
 primeval savage and modern philosopher, though it reveals 
 itself after a different fashion. 
 
 The size of some of these cairns, necessitating combined 
 effort for their erection, has been interpreted to signify that 
 their builders lived in communities. The same argument 
 has been drawn from the lake dwellings in luigland and 
 Wales, inferred to belong to this period.* Like the villagers 
 on the Roumelian lake, who taxed their share in the 
 work of construction b)- the number of wives each man 
 could afford to keep, necessit)- must have revealed to them 
 the benefits of a division of labour. That, at all events, the>- 
 
 * Some of the Swiss I'fahltiauten belong to the Stone Age. See the 
 interesting chapter on this sui)ject in Lul)bock's '• Prehistoric Ages.'" 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF THE SAVAGE. 1 5 
 
 had reached the pastoral stage, the association of the 
 domestic animals with the departed in the great chambered 
 cairns clearly shows. The principle that unit}- is defence 
 and the guarantee of a certain amount of comfort which 
 isolation cannot secure, would soon teach the savage 
 wherein his interest la}-. The savage is to a great extent a 
 child in understanding, and invariabl}' shows the child's 
 aversion to abstruse questions as to creed with which the 
 missionary may puzzle him, but he has more practical 
 shrewdness than he often gets credit for, and may be trusted 
 to make the best of circumstances. He has a philosophy 
 of life, such as it is, — principles which may not be dogmas, 
 but are at all events unconscious moulders of life and 
 destiny. He has only reached, it is true, the myth-making 
 age, and possesses the crude poetic imagination, often indeed 
 of remarkably vivid power, that finds mature expression in 
 the fancy of the modern poet. Nevertheless the experiences 
 of life beget in every mortal thoughts which weave them- 
 selves into a practical philosophy, ideas which mould his 
 age and his destiny, as in the case of higher civilisations. 
 No age, even that of the savage, is so poor that it is not 
 characterised by some leading thought — the offspring of 
 the thinking brain — which lends it colour and movement, 
 which is the mainspring of its history. 
 
 From the specimens of stone implements which have 
 been picked up where they were deposited or accidentall}^ 
 dropped thousands of years back, we learn that though the 
 builder of the Later Stone Age used no tools, he was hot 
 destitute of tools of a sort. The axes, manufactured from 
 granite or porphyr}- or other durable stone, were used b}- 
 him as weapons and as implements for hewing, and some 
 examples show that he knew how to grind and polish them 
 skilfully. Several grinding stones which have survived 
 would have attested this fact had no actual instance of their 
 use been forthcoming. The larger number of the axes is 
 unperforated, so that they must have been fitted into the 
 hole bored in the wooden handle, as in the case of one 
 recovered from a depth of six feet below the surface of the 
 Solway Moss. The intelligence of their makers is apparent 
 in the acuteness with which they adapted the form to the 
 
l6 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 properties of the material used. Evidently the necessity of 
 adapting means to ends — one of the great secrets of human 
 progress throughout the ages — did not come to him without 
 its lesson. Moreover, the fluted ornament of the beautiful flint 
 arrow and spear heads — such welcome finds in our schooldays 
 — is the expression of an art which it seems is now unknown 
 to the savage who still works in stone, and remains a mystery 
 to the man of science.* '" In the matter of arrowheads," 
 says Burton,^- " Scotland can claim pre-eminence above any 
 other land. They are exquisite marvels of handiwork." It 
 appears, too, that the hoards of flint chips, which enabled 
 us to supply some ploughman with material for striking a 
 light for his pipe in the da)'s when matches were scarce in 
 the north, mark the scene of some primeval workshop, 
 where the flintworker not only plied his craft, but stored his 
 supply of the precious material, never ver}' abundant in 
 Scotland. Our savage ancestors had certainly no thought 
 of our highly problematic existence, but the skilful hand 
 was destined to perpetuate his memory even unto this era 
 of future time,:|. for the delicate forms he produced to kill 
 the deer with may be seen to-day adorning the breast of 
 some fair dame as a pendant to a necklace. Even if 
 many links in the chain that binds the present to the past 
 be lost, notwithstanding the facility with which the Scot 
 has been credited for constructing a pedigree, we ha\e 
 doubtless his living representative among us still, were we 
 only acute enough to discover him. This, some have 
 attempted. An examination of the bones found in these 
 sepulchral mounds in England, as well as in the flint mines 
 of Norfolk and Sussex, has led to the conclusion that the 
 people of the Stone Age were of short stature and small 
 boned, with skulls of a long and narrow type. The women 
 arc markedly smaller than the men, and the conditions of 
 life are judged to have been the reverse of easy or favour- 
 able to physical development. Thc\- probably resembled 
 
 * Anderson, " .Scotl.ind in P.igan Times," p. 3S0. 
 
 t " History of .Scollaml," i., p. 12S. 
 
 t The .association of the present with the remote Stone Age is strikingly 
 illustrated by the custom, still practised in Shcilanti, of heating milk or water 
 by placing .a hot stone in a vessel tilled with one nf these liquids. See Mitchell, 
 " Past in the Present," lect. v. 
 
MODERN DESCENDANTS 1 7 
 
 in habits and appearance the modern Lap, the Samoeid, 
 and the Esquimaux.* But they could not have been 
 destitute of daring and courage, if the Si lures, who gave 
 the Romans so much trouble in their attempt to subdue 
 Wales, were their representatives at a time when the torch 
 of history begins to illuminate the haunts to which they 
 had been dri\-en bv new invaders to seek refuire. Their 
 modern survivors have been looked for, not merely in the 
 Principality, but in certain parts of England, and among 
 the short, blackhaired people of Ireland,t and the High- 
 lands and islands of Scotland, whose " strange, foreis-n 
 look " has struck the eye of the traveller. Considering the 
 slender grounds we have for forming a judgment, such an 
 attempt seems to me rather audacious. In the absence of 
 historic evidence, part of the chain must perforce be cast 
 in the moulds of fancy or conjecture. But it would be 
 unreasonable to conclude that the primeval Briton com- 
 pletely disappeared. Tribes and people have died out, no 
 doubt, and this, alas, has been too much the tendency 
 where a more civilised or a stronger race has come into 
 contact with one at a lower stage of culture or vieour 
 The track of the conqueror was, till comparatively recently, 
 marked b}- the grim excesses of carnage and desolation. 
 Britain itself has more than once suffered from this baneful 
 fate of the race. The fierce Saxon and Dane, as well as the 
 more highly civilised Roman, established their power at the 
 point of the sword, planting their standards in the blood-d}-ed 
 soil of a vanquished people. Conquest and carnage — this 
 awful double-faced spectre even )'et rears its head above the 
 most civilised regions of the earth, and the grim apparition 
 has often stalked throughout our island home, bringing 
 death and desolation in its train, — how often cannot be 
 told, since the pall of oblivion wraps so large a portion of 
 the past in its folds. Yet that the remnants, at least, of 
 the tribes that have been, contributed to form this hetero- 
 geneous Britain to-day, is as evident as it is probable, though 
 the attempt to unravel the genealogical skein of the modern 
 
 * Latham, "Ethnology of the British Isles," p. 25; Elton, "Origins of 
 English History,"' p. 130. 
 
 t Supposed to represent the Fir Bolgs of Irish tradition. 
 
 B 
 
l8 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 Briton still leaves a good deal of haze, even if clothed in the 
 crisp diction of a Matthew Arnold.* Tacitus, for example, 
 has left on record the opinion of observers living at the com- 
 parative!}' early date of the first century, that the inhabitants 
 of Britain were composed of tribes different in race and 
 appearance.! But what Lubbock I says of the inhabitants 
 of the succeeding Bronze Age is still more applicable to 
 those of their predecessors of the Stone Period — " Until we 
 have a considerable body of evidence, it would be very 
 unsafe to speculate on their character." Whoever these 
 primeval tribes were, they have been credited by those who 
 have minutel)- examined the remains of their culture, with 
 qualities, of which their modern descendants need not be 
 ashamed. No people at a low stage of development have 
 deser\-ed better the title of " the noble savage," if the 
 inferences of our archaeologists are to be trusted. This 
 seems to me questionable as far as their general condition 
 is concerned, but for the present let the long-unremembered 
 dead have the benefit of the doubt. " Reviewing the whole 
 phenomena of the Stone Age," sa\'s Dr Anderson, " as these 
 are manifested in Scotland, we find them affording evidence 
 of capacity and culture in the individual associated with 
 evidences of civilisation in the community." s!^ This is 
 learned. Is it also fact ? The ages are wrapped in silence, 
 and the eloquence of tools and ornaments is, after all, not 
 quite so explicit as that of some of its modern interpreters. 
 It is but justice to mention that the products of the Stone 
 Age in other lands have likewise stirred the admiration of 
 those competent to pass judgment on the skill and taste of 
 the savage. Mr Du Chaillu,|| an authorit\- of high rank on 
 Scandinavian antiquities, is as appreciative as Dr Anderson, 
 and he claims an even higher degree of civilisation for the 
 Stone and Bronze Age inhabitants of Scandinavia than 
 existed among those of Central and Western Europe 
 during the same periods. 
 
 * "On the .Study of Celtic Literature," sect. ill. 
 
 t " Agricola," c. 1 1. t" Prehistoric Times," p. 145. 
 
 § Sir Arthur Mitchell ("Past in the Present," lects. i. and iv.) likewise 
 adduces reasons for crediting the Stone Age man with intellectual capacity 
 and correct sentiments. 
 
 II Du Chaillu, "Viking Age," i., chaps, viii. and ix. 
 
AN EPOCH-MAKING EVENT. 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 WORK AND PROGRESS. 
 
 THE discovery of bronze in a grave, which contains 
 the traces of great antiquity, may be regarded as 
 an epoch-making event in the history of a country. 
 It furnishes convincing evidence of work and progress. 
 While development is apparent in the more skilfully con- 
 structed instruments of the Later Stone Age as compared 
 with the Earlier, it becomes a predominant feature as soon 
 as we find the presence of a metal like bronze. It represents 
 a revolution in society which, though lost to histor)', must 
 have been fraught with important results. It means for 
 one thing a certain advance in material comfort. The 
 workman furnished with a bronze axe was far more the 
 master of circumstances than he who only possessed one of 
 stone. It means also a corresponding development in the 
 habits of life. The use of his implements and weapons 
 would keep the man, who was acquainted with the manufac- 
 ture of bronze, from remaining a savage. They would lend 
 him a means of helping himself, which must speedily trans- 
 form his whole life, giving him a better chance of clearing 
 the forest, of tilling the ground, of providing shelter for 
 himself and his dependants, of defending his home from the 
 attacks of wild beasts, and of securing a richer diet than 
 was possible before. It means, further, an impulse to trade 
 and intercourse, an advance from the mere nomadic state 
 to at least the rudiments of an industrial life — the exchange 
 of manufactured articles and the spirit of enterprise which 
 this includes. It means, too, the growth of intelligence. 
 The education of the human race in its lower stages must 
 depend largely on such tangible objects as men use in the 
 ordinary work of life. These furnish an object-lesson, 
 where thinking, without the aid of things that compel 
 thought, is at a discount. They are to such, what a library 
 is to the educated man of to-day. It is around them that 
 
20 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 his thoughts cluster more than anything else — the uses, the 
 processes they represent, are familiar exercises on which his 
 mind works. This embraces a large proportion of his 
 culture. Any one intimately acquainted with the ways of 
 country people, for instance, must have observed how much 
 of their talk and their meditation is of their occupation, and 
 everything related to it. His spear and his mattock — how 
 much do these represent, too, of barbarian man. And the 
 higher the type of implement, the more intricate and 
 beneficial the uses to which it is put, the more developed 
 the intelligence of the workman.* The peasant who has 
 taken advantage of the mechanical progress of the last half- 
 century, and uses the most approved implements in cultiva- 
 tion, is clearly a more intelligent man, and represents a 
 higher intellectual life, than he who has lagged behind the 
 
 age. 
 
 Intelligence must grow with knowledge, and if the first 
 stages of growth were slow compared with the rapid pace at 
 which man now advances in insight and enlightenment, they 
 were all the same steps in advance, the one of the other. The 
 ancients expressed their sense of the progress represented 
 by the discovery of the metals by associating it with some 
 marvellous event. Lucretius considered that the secret 
 treasures of the earth were revealed to man by a terrible 
 conflagration of a forest growing in metalliferous soil. 
 Posidonius would have us believe that the gold and silver 
 which added so much to the v/ealth of Spain, were revealed 
 in the same way. So marked, at any rate, is the progress, 
 social, intellectual, material, represented by the step from 
 stone to bronze, that it has been regarded as indicating the 
 advent of a new people. So Worsaae; and Lubbock,-f- 
 judging from the marked difference between the art of the 
 two periods, comes to the same conclusion. Wilson,;^ on 
 the other hand, is of opinion that the likeness of the first 
 
 * Sir Arthur Mitchell (" The Past in the Present," lect. iv.) holds that 
 working in metals does not of itself necessarily imply a s^reater mental power, 
 or greater culture, than working in stone, but the example illustrative of this 
 is that of the degraded portion of a highly civilised community, an exception 
 which does not invalidate the general rule. 
 
 t "Origin of Civilisation."' chap. ii. 
 
 :J: " Prehistoric Annals of Scotland,"' pp. 250-252. 
 
THE ADVENT OF A NEW RACK. 21 
 
 bronze weapons to those of stone indicates the transition 
 b}' the same race from the latter to the former. The hypo- 
 thesis of the advent of a new race means invasion ; that of 
 a gradual transition of the same race, contact rather by 
 means of barter. There is historical evidence, of a very 
 remote date, of both these means of connection between 
 Britain* and the Continent, and both undoubtedly share 
 the merit of having given an impulse to our insular culture. 
 At all events, the probability is that a discovery of this 
 kind came from an external source rather than by dint of 
 insular g-enius. The centre of civilisation in the ancient 
 world was on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and 
 the power which has given an impetus to the development 
 of the human race has always radiated from some more or 
 less limited centre. Since the intellectual revival of the 
 fifteenth century, this influence has been derived from the 
 north and west of Europe ; previously the path of progress 
 was from the south and east. " It appears probable," says 
 Lubbock, " that the knowledge of metal is one of those 
 great discoveries that Europe owes to the East." t The 
 discovery of stone and bronze moulds, in which the imple- 
 ments of the Bronze Age were made, indicates that, whether 
 introduced from without or not, their manufacture was 
 afterwards carried on in the island. 
 
 The new race which the use of bronze is thought to 
 have added to the population of Britain, and which drove 
 such of the older inhabitants as did not amalgamate into 
 the less accessible regions, is inferred to have been of 
 Finnish extraction — a tall, fair-haired, strong-limbed people, 
 with short, round skulls, and rapidly retreating foreheads, 
 non-Aryan, like their predecessors of the Stone Period, but 
 better fitted by the possession of superior implements for 
 maintaining the struggle for existence, and bringing with 
 them a higher culture. Professor Rhysj believes that he 
 has found the fragments of such a non-Aryan and non- 
 Celtic language in such words as Leucopibia, the ancient 
 name of the site of Whithorn, in Galloway, and in the tribe 
 
 * Lubbock finds in certain kinds of stone, which are not native to Europe, 
 traces of a trade with the East in the Neolithic Age. 
 
 t " Prehistoric Times,"' p. 64. + " Celtic Britain." 
 
22 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 of the Epidia whom Ptolemy places in the north-west of 
 Scotland. Others have recognised their posterity in the 
 "huee-limbed and red-haired men of the north" of Vitruvius, 
 and the fierce-eyed giants with whom Tacitus peopled Cale- 
 donia. Speculation of this kind is not history, but the 
 inquisitive reader will find in the " Origins of English 
 History,"* a collection of curious facts, which are held to 
 lend it weight. 
 
 In whatever way the use of bronze became common in 
 Britain, the era of its duration is so remote that no human 
 dwelling has survived throughout the intervening centuries, 
 if we except, perhaps, the form of habitation known as the 
 lake dwelling. Examples of their architecture have been 
 preserved nevertheless, but, as in the case of the Stone Age 
 builders, they are the memorials of the dead. The culture 
 we are considering is so old that we must still haunt the 
 tombs of the dead for knowledge of the living. Some of 
 these are marked b\- no external erection, and such spots 
 in which the nameless dead have reposed these ages long 
 have been discovered by accident and recognised as ceme- 
 teries f of the Bronze Age, by the finding of human re- 
 mains, along with one or more urns, and weapons or 
 ornaments of bronze. Others are commemorated by cairns, 
 like the one at Collessie — huge, shapeless masses of stones, | 
 showing neither chamber, nor external plan, whose investi- 
 gation has disclosed a stone cist resting on the surface of 
 the ground, and, in one or two cases, underground inter- 
 ments. But the striking feature of the cemetery of the 
 Bronze Age are the impressive circles § of standing stones, 
 so numerous even yet, especially in the north, though the 
 unconscious sacrilege of the agriculturist has diminished 
 their numbers. The two most imposing specimens are at 
 
 * Elton. 
 
 t Such as those at Magdalen Bridge, Midlothian ; Lawpark. St Andrews ; 
 Shanwell, Kinross, &c. 
 
 Z The degradation of type often thus forms a curious accompaniment of 
 advancing civilisation. New forms reiilaco the old. which lingers only as 
 a ruder and meaner survival. See Mitchell, " Past in the Present,'" lect. iii. 
 
 § Other groups of stones, though not circular, but placed in parallel lines, as 
 at Garhouse and Clyth, in Caithness, to which district they are limited so far 
 as known, are also considered, with reasonable probability, to mark sepulchres 
 of the Bronze Period. 
 
AN UNWRITTEN ILIAD. 23 
 
 Stennis, in Orkney, and Callcrnish, in Lewis, and it may- 
 afford some idea of their dimensions, as well as the labour 
 required to set up those massive undressed blocks of which 
 they are composed, if we bear in mind that the former 
 with its encircling trench, measures 366 feet in diameter, 
 and probably numbered as many as sixty erect stones. 
 The largest of those left standing measures fourteen feet in 
 height, and eighteen feet in breadth. Their imposing 
 dimensions might lead us at first sight to the conclusion 
 that these circles were erected as public memorials of the 
 deeds of some great hero, or of some great event, which 
 rendered the scene sacred and memorable in the unsuns; 
 annals of the past. In our ignorance of, and consequent 
 indifference towards that faded past, we are apt to think 
 that it contained nothing worthy of the inspiration of the 
 bard. We forget that without a Homer the stirring deeds 
 enacted before the walls of Troy would have been lost in 
 the shadows of oblivion, and the heroic figures of a Hector 
 and an Achilles, the wisdom of a Nestor, the noble 
 sentiments of an Agamemnon, would never have thrilled the 
 world to latest ages. Do I overstate the truth when I say 
 that an Iliad might have been composed from the wars and 
 adventures, the tales and rousing deeds of that lost age of 
 which these impressive circles are the silent monuments ? 
 After all, we possess but a fraction of the history of the 
 human race. A moderate-sized library might contain, the 
 multiplication of books notwithstanding, all that lies on 
 this side of the borderland of myth and tradition, which 
 divides us from the vast unknown and unrecorded incidents 
 in the story of man. What sentiments of admiration, 
 perhaps of reverence, if also of horror, might not move us, 
 if we only understood what has been handed down in 
 writing of stone like this, if we could only realise all that 
 clusters around it. The discovery of more interments than 
 one seems to indicate, however, that such circles were 
 usually meant to commemorate the repose not of a single 
 hero, but are rather the burying-place of a family or a tribe. 
 But even if nothing more, they may be regarded as wit- 
 nesses to history, for who has held converse with a fellow- 
 mortal without stumbling on something worthy of note, 
 
24 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 something worthy a place in the biograph}' of humanit)'? 
 One thing is certain — the\- have an historical significance, 
 the\- at least represent the thoughts and deeds of those who 
 in this wa}' stro\-c to give them permanent expression. 
 Victor Hugo speaks the truth, " L'architecture a ete 
 jusqu'au quinzieme siecle le registre principal de I'humanite 
 . . . toute idee populaire comme toute loi religieuse a eu 
 ses monuments ; le genre humain enfin n'a rien pense 
 d'important qu'il ne I'ait ecrit en pierre. . . . L'architecture 
 est le grand livre de I'humanite, I'expression principale de 
 I'homme a ses divers etats de developpement, soit comme 
 force, soit comme intelligence." * 
 
 For long these venerable monuments of a lost age 
 possessed what has been shown to be quite a fictitious 
 interest. The}- were enveloped in a sinister mystery as the 
 remains of Druidic temples. I remember as a boy being 
 impressed with a feeling of awe, as I occasionally passed 
 one of them in a field near m}' native place, and thought of 
 the grim rites of human sacrifice that tradition associated 
 with it, and recalled in fancy the blood and smoke stained 
 priests who maintained their savage superstitions at such 
 inhuman cost to a priest-ridden people. But this belief has 
 been discredited b}' the researches of antiquaries like Mr 
 Ch. Elphinstone Dalr}-mple, who did so much b>' personal 
 investigation to discover the true significance of these 
 venerable monuments, and thus consigned it to the limbo 
 of so many exploded fancies which pass for truth in 
 popular story and in the dust}' tomes of b}'egone writers. 
 Less than a quarter of a century ago it found a strenuous 
 advocate in so accomplished an author as Colonel Leslie 
 Forbes.-f- But more of this anon, when we are brought face 
 to face with the cult of North Britain in the authentic 
 records of early missionary enterprise. The presence of 
 human remains in the site of most of those examined justify 
 us in regarding them as famil}- or district cemeteries — the 
 last resting-places of our ancestors of the Bronze Age, 
 around which the thoughts of the living centred in pious 
 and mournful meditation in some such fashion as the 
 
 * "Notre Dame de Paris,' i., pp. 256, 265. 
 t " The Early Races of .Scotland." 
 
STONE MONUMENTS, ETC., IX FOLK-LORE. 25 
 
 passer-by beholds the Christian church)-ai'd of his native 
 village. This does not, of course, exclude the possibility of 
 their having been the scene of religious rites. Ca,\sar and 
 Tacitus are weighty authorities for the existence in Britain 
 of the bloody ceremonial of a barbarous cult, while Gildas * 
 speaks of ancient temples whose images were mouldering 
 awa)- in his daw The}' may afterwards have come, in 
 association with such rites, to have a different use from 
 their original one. The pagan of a later time, as we learn 
 from the life of St Boniface, made use of them as altars 
 whereon to sacrifice the living, or regarded them as the 
 favourite haunts of malicious or benevolent spirits. The 
 power of something old or mysterious to attract the re- 
 verence of those by whom its primitive use is unknown or 
 overlooked, is a fact which appears in history still. Even 
 a comparatively trivial object may be thus honoured, if its 
 antiquity lends it the charm of mystery. Many of the 
 flint and stone weapons thus came to be regarded as 
 emblems of the spirit-world, and many a fairy tale might be 
 told of the Elfinarrow, the Elfbolt, the Thunderbolt of the 
 North of Scotland and of Scandinavia, the Hlinebedden or 
 Giants' beds of Germany, the Pixy rocks and Odin's Stone 
 of English lore, and the Dolmens des Pierres Turquoises of 
 Brittan}-. Much more so in the case of monuments, whose 
 imposing dimensions and weatherbeaten isolation excite in 
 the passer-by even yet an involuntary tribute of reverence. 
 One of these stones had been appropriated as a gatepost 
 by a farmer of a neighbouring parish to that in which m}- 
 home was situated, but it had to be replaced, on the ground 
 that it would not remain stationary, but moved from 
 side to side. 
 
 The human remains found in the sepulchres of the 
 Bronze Age are both cremated and unburnt, but the former 
 mode of burial was, it appears, the more common. Besides 
 these, they have usually yielded urns, pieces of bronze 
 instruments, ornaments of the same material as well as of 
 gold, jet, and amber, in the form of armlets, rings, neck- 
 laces, and bracelets, and articles of stone or flint, such as a 
 stone battleaxe recovered from the circle at Crichie in 
 
 * " Historia," sect. 4. 
 
26 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 Aberdeenshire. The presence of these objects, which pass 
 under the lugubrious name of " grave goods," affords us an 
 instructive glimpse of the cast of thought of our forefathers 
 of this remote age. They reveal the existence of a custom 
 which survived to historic times in the paganism of Europe, 
 and which even )-et lives, in Catholic countries, in the 
 practice of burying the higher orders of the clergy in full 
 canonicals. The monarch or knight who was interred in the 
 Middle Ages with his weapons and the emblems of his rank, 
 affords another lingering trace of the same primeval custom. 
 It is also prevalent among many rude tribes of modern 
 times. Only, wherever the Christian creed is adopted as 
 its spiritual simplicity, and the close of the earthly life is 
 regarded as the commencement of a higher, the practice is 
 but an unmeaning survival, or a mere tribute of the respect 
 of the living towards those whose dignity is thus recognised 
 even in death. But among those who had not reached this 
 enlightened stage of spiritual idea, — among the rude people 
 of Africa in modern times as among our forefathers of the 
 Bronze Period, — it expresses a natural phase of realistic 
 thought. The future life natural!}' appears to such as a 
 continuation of the life they lead here. The savage or the 
 barbarian is not equal to the refined abstractions of the 
 metaphysician or the theologian. He paints on the canvas 
 of his fancy a Walhalla in which the same world, the same 
 pursuits, the same recreations are reflected. A certain ideal 
 doubtless lends a lighter shimmer to the colouring of his 
 picture of the future. Even the rudest man must have at 
 least the germ of an ideal in his human soul, with that 
 innate susceptibility of sorrow and joy, pain and trial, 
 death and woe. It may lack elevation, perspective ; but 
 the feeling of hunger and cold alone cannot but beget the 
 thought of, the longing for the happier circumstances to 
 which warmth and plenty lend their rosier hues. The 
 Viking sought in his Walhalla, the wild adventures, the 
 fierce combats of his warrior life on earth, but the ideal of a 
 deathless existence in spite of war and wounds transfigured 
 his mundane idea of a future heaven.* All the same his 
 
 * Lubbock thinks that, if this belief was gener.il, there ought to be found 
 articles in every grave, whereas a large iiroportinn of Bronze Age graves show 
 
CONCEPTION OF THE FUTURE LIFE. 2/ 
 
 future is essentially but the present transposed, and this is 
 true, too, of these children of nature, whose thoughts we 
 may still read in the tombs of their dead. The bereaved 
 Christian who lays the departed in the earth in the hope of 
 a blessed resurrection is not the sole possessor of the con- 
 solation of an inspiring faith. The rude pagan who placed 
 the weapons of the warrior in the stone cist or the death 
 chamber in which he was laid to rest, was not devoid of a 
 comfort as real. He had but passed by the gateway of the 
 erave into a state where he had still need of the tools, the 
 weapons, the ornaments, he had handled in this life. And 
 the emblems of human affection are not more touching, not 
 more expressive in the form of a wreath, or a granite cross, 
 than of a valuable ornament of gold which was placed in 
 many of these graves by one whose affection surmounted 
 greed and taught him self-sacrifice. A shady side there is, 
 however, for such a phase of thought as these grave goods 
 indicate, has often been associated with a grim super- 
 stition. If the warrior chief had need of his weapons and 
 martial ornaments in the region of the dead, did he not also 
 require the services of his slaves and followers ? We know 
 the excessive inhumanity of which this is the cause in many 
 an African community. In Dahomey the death of a king 
 is the occasion of the slaughter of his wives and slaves in 
 order that the deceased may not go forth on his journey 
 into the invisible, bereft of all the joys and services which 
 he enjoyed here. This belief gives rise, indeed, to a con- 
 tinuous slaughter, and the captive taken in war is often 
 feasted and cared for only in order that he may the better 
 bear the message of the king to his sire in the realms of the 
 spirit-world, be the matter ever so trivial. Where such a 
 superstition darkens the mind, life is a miserably cheap 
 commodity, and may even be said to cost more lives than 
 the slave trade ever did. The ancient world, too, furnishes 
 abundant examples of the same inhumanity, resulting from 
 religious belief. 
 
 'fc>' 
 
 no " goods." " The articles found in graves cannot be seriously considered as 
 affording any evidence of a definite belief in a future state of existence ' 
 {" Preh. Times," p. 149). On the other hand, it seems to me most natural that 
 they should have been placed there for this rather than for any other reason. 
 
28 CULTURE IX EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 " The Gauls had once believed, like their Latin neigh- 
 bours, in a shado\v\- existence of the dead, and in some 
 Hades or Elj-sium fashioned after the t\-pe of the present 
 world. The\- used to cast on the funeral pyre whatever 
 things the dead man loved, so that his spirit might enjoy 
 them in the world to coine, and at the end of the funeral, 
 his favourite slaves and dependents were burned alive on 
 the pile to keep their master compan}'."* I am inclined to 
 believe that, as the same belief as to the other world 
 evidently existed among our forefathers of the Bronze Age, 
 so did the practice, and that scenes of suffering characterised 
 their ancestral worship. This has, in fact, been suspected 
 on other and more apposite grounds. When considering 
 similar phenomena of the Stone Age, Dr Latham remarks, 
 " Around a skeleton more or less entire are often found, at 
 regular distances, the ashes of bodies that were burnt, just 
 as if the chief was interred in the flesh, but his subordinates 
 given over to the flames."-f- We may, with Dr Anderson, 
 regard the presence of grave goods as " evidences of the 
 piety and affection which expressed themselves in this 
 manner," or " of the intensity of their devotion to filial 
 memories and family ties,";): and yet .see in them the indica- 
 tion of a brutal practice. Even Cicero could honesth- and 
 enthusiasticall}- say in regard to the gladiatorial games, 
 " It is the greatest pleasure in life to see a brave enemy led 
 off to torture and death." Murder and brutality are after 
 all to a certain extent subjective terms, and ha\'e even 
 found apologists among men professing a religion of uni- 
 versal Love, but who, under the influence of a barbarous 
 intolerance, have regarded the burning of a heretic as 
 serviceable to religion and acceptable to God. 
 
 Men are thus in morals and religion, as in other 
 things, but the creatures of their age, and a great deal of 
 what is called revelation is in realit}- but the reflection of 
 this fact. " There are in human nature," sa\'s Leckic. " and 
 more especialh' in the benevolent affections, inequalities, 
 
 * Elton, "Origins of Eng. History, •' p. 266. Cf. Cx-sar, '-Hell. Gall.," 
 l)k. vi., ch. 19. 
 
 t " Ethnology of Britain," p. 23. 
 
 X " Scotland in Pagan Times," pp. 96, 227. 
 
THE MAN OF THE BRONZE AGE. 29 
 
 inconsistencies, and anomalies, of which theorists do not 
 ahvays take account. We should be altogether in error, if 
 we supposed that a man who took pleasure in a gladiatorial 
 combat in ancient Rome, was necessarily as inhuman as a 
 modern would be who took pleasure in the same spectacle. 
 A man who falls but a little below the standard of his own 
 merciful age is often in realitv far worse than a man who 
 had conformed to the standard of a much more barbarous 
 ag-e. even thouq-h the latter will do some things with perfect 
 equanimity from which the other would recoil with 
 horror."* 
 
 These grave goods, supplemented by the hoards of 
 bronze objects discovered throughout the country, throw 
 lieht also on the mode of life of the inhabitants of North 
 Britain during this remote period. The man of the Bronze 
 Age was evidently a warrior of no mean order. Like the 
 martial Zulu or Basuto of to-day, he was apparently fond 
 of rendering his aspect more formidable by some fantastic 
 head-srear. Portions of what are deemed bronze helmets 
 have been discovered, and though associated with instru- 
 ments of iron, may have been a survival of an earlier 
 culture. When he entered the fray, he bore on his left 
 hand a shield whose surface was ornamented with studs or 
 knobs of the same material. He fought with sword, spear, 
 and dagger. The sword was short, leaf-shaped, double- 
 edged, pointed, but unfurnished with a guard — fitted for 
 thrusting rather than for cutting. Some of them are beauti- 
 ful specimens of workmanship. The dagger and the spear 
 resembled it, in shape, the latter being fixed by a round 
 socket to a wooden shaft. But the warrior was equally 
 expert, it seems, in wielding the axe, with which he felled 
 the giant trees, whose gnarled boughs added to the gloom 
 of the primeval forest. Those axes are mostly wedge- 
 shaped and socketed, and the canoes which, with their aid, 
 and perhaps with that of fire, he hollowed out of the trees, 
 form the rudimentary attempt at marine architecture, which 
 has grown to be one of the triumphant features of Scottish 
 industry. We cannot forbear some sympathetic reflections 
 on the brawny son of Vulcan who wielded the blow that 
 
 * " History of European Morals," i., p. 305. 
 
30 CULTURE IX KARLV SCOTLAND. 
 
 rang from the anvil discovered in Suthcrlandshire, and 
 which has ever been a familiar note in the march of civilisa- 
 tion. So, too, have the carpenter, the fisherman, the reaper, 
 the goldsmith, perpetuated their craft through the im- 
 perishable character of the implements they used or the 
 objects they fashioned, enabling us to infer the possession 
 of a practical intelligence, a capacity for industry of various 
 kinds, which reveals the ordered community existing in 
 virtue of the great modern factors of combination and co- 
 operation. War and work — thus swings the pendulum of 
 time as it measures the progress of the race. 
 
 A very striking feature is the apparent abundance of 
 gold — a fact which is also characteristic of Scandinavian 
 remains of this period.* Nor need this surprise u.s. It is 
 not so long ago that nearly the whole gold coinage of 
 Scotland was minted out of the native metal. The moors 
 of Lanark, the uplands of Dumfries, were the hunting 
 ground of the miner, whose exertions were not infrequently 
 rewarded by the smile of Fortune.f There is thus no 
 necessity for inferring that the precious metal was obtained 
 by barter, and it is not the first time that a country once 
 rich in this metal has subsequently yielded only very scanty 
 supplies. Spain was the Mexico of the ancient world, 
 though the Spaniards afterwards had to seek their El 
 Dorado across the western main. " The Tagus rolled 
 gold, and the Guadiana silver ; the Phoenician sailors were 
 said to have replaced their anchors with masses of silver 
 for which they had no room on board, and the Iberians to 
 have used gold for mangers and silver for their vats of 
 beer."+ The barbarian Briton of the Bronze Age appears, 
 then, to have helped himself liberally from the native ore, 
 and what is more remarkable, judging from the amount of 
 skill and taste he expended on its manufacture into orna- 
 ments, many of which are both massive and elegant in 
 form, to have appreciated its value. A certain strong in- 
 telHf^ence reveals itself in this. Our rude barbarian ancestor 
 
 • Du Chaillu. '-Viking Age," ch. ix. 
 
 t Royal Commission appointed to inciuire into the subject of Mining 
 Royalties {2n(l Report). 
 
 + " Origins of Eng. Hist.," p. 9- 
 
PERCEPTION OF THE RELATION OF THINGS. 3 1 
 
 of this period did not exult with childish glee over a worth- 
 less trinket like the wild African of modern times. He 
 was in possession of jewellery of no mean workmanship, and 
 of a value equal to large sums of our money — ^jewellery 
 which we can hardly imagine him bartering away for a 
 brass button, like the native of Darkest Africa, to whom a 
 tusk of ivory is worth a few cotton handkerchiefs. There 
 is here a keener perception of the relation of things. The 
 Peruvians, who worked in gold, were, we know, found to 
 be in a far higher state of civilisation than the tribes first 
 discovered by Columbus. Another point in his favour is 
 that his taste and skill were not limited by the value of the 
 material in which he worked. He seems to have carried 
 his sense of beauty, his passion for ornament, into all that 
 he made. The sword and dagger blades are beautifully 
 cast and finished, solidly but neatly fastened by rivets into 
 their handles, which are sometimes decorated with mount- 
 ings of gold ornamented in repousse work. 
 
 The clay urns found in the tombs, though not turned 
 on the potter's wheel, are well made, and carefully orna- 
 mented by combinations of straight lines. One found under 
 a stone circle at Glenballoch, near Blairgowrie, is, according 
 to Mr Romilly Allen, of such excellent workmanship that 
 " it will compare favourably with those of any other pro- 
 duction of ceramic art, ancient or modern." * The assertion 
 must be taken for what it is worth, but a mere glance at the 
 finer specimens of the art, the mechanical skill, the sense of 
 beauty of those men who worked in bronze and gold, 
 makes it impossible to deny that they had in some respects 
 made an approach to some of the refinements of civilised 
 life. The community ma}- be rude, but these things indi- 
 cate the presence of moulding powers which require but a 
 fair field in order to elevate the culture of the mass. A 
 good workman is one of the greatest forces in the elevation 
 of a cornmunity. He is a teacher to his own generation ; 
 he is a prophet for the future. Skill and taste are the soul 
 of the world's material progress, and this soul is immortal. 
 
 * '* Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot.," vol. xiv., p. 90. 
 
32 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ARCHITECTURE AND WAR. 
 
 THE sense of beauty, going hand in hand with skill in 
 execution, which characterises the remains of the 
 Bronze Culture, becomes still more marked in 
 that of the Iron Age. I do not think we shall err if we 
 regard the tools and weapons made of this metal, and the 
 objects of bronze, or silver, or other material associated 
 with them, as evidence of the presence of men of Celtic 
 race in the island. It is highly probable that it is to this 
 immigration of a new people that we owe the first use of 
 iron in Britain. The culture which it represents can hardly 
 lay claim to a remoter date than the day on which the first 
 Goidelic adventurer or trader anchored his coracle under 
 the shadow of Albion's cliffs, if, indeed, it reach so far back 
 as this. It is certain, at all events, that the type of art of 
 the prehistoric Iron Age is Celtic, the simple forerunner of 
 that intricate style in which the Celtic monk long after- 
 wards gave scope to his taste and fancy. Unlike the com- 
 bination of straight lines of the Bronze Age, it consists of 
 divergent spiral curves, and was very extensivel}' applied. 
 The desire to make a thing beautiful as well as serviceable, 
 betrays itself in the ornamentation of articles for common 
 use as well as the most exquisitely finished jewellery, of 
 the bronze harness of their horses and the stone balls which 
 they threw with a sling, as well as the armlets, bronze hand- 
 mirrors, and other nicnacs of more delicate form and use. 
 Sometimes it is associated with a graceful zoomorphism, as 
 in the case of the armlet found in the sands near the mouth 
 of the Findhorn, which has the form of a coiled serpent, and 
 is so beautifully executed, that it might pass for the work 
 of a highly skilled workman of the nineteenth century. 
 One circumstance is of great significance as tending to 
 confirm the foregoing opinion regarding the comparatively 
 late date of the Iron .Age culture, of which it is a char- 
 
TflE LIGHT-BEARING DAWN OF HISTORY. ^^ 
 
 acteristic feature. A bronze saucepan of Roman manu- 
 facture has been discovered in North Britain, aloncr with a 
 bronze armlet ornamented in this fashion, and we may 
 acquiesce in the conclusion that " the native style of art 
 (iu\, characteristic of the prehistoric Iron A^e) was already 
 in the period of its highest development at or about the 
 time of the Roman occupation of the southern portion of 
 Scotland."* 
 
 Not only so, but the presence of articles of Roman 
 workmanship in the architectural remains belonmncr to the 
 pagan Iron Age of Scotland, enable us to assign the period 
 of their erection in a more exact manner than was possible 
 in the case of the cairns and stone circles of former epochs. 
 The shadowy night of a remote antiquity begins to merge in 
 the still indistinct, yet light-bearing dawn of history. The 
 tramp of the legions — that first note in the authentic story 
 of many of the tribes of Western Europe— has broken the 
 solitude of the Caledonian forest. It has advanced beyond 
 the Forth and the Tay, receded, died away — hesitating before 
 those rugged, barren mountains, and the foe that lurked in 
 every glen and thicket. Nevertheless its traces are dis- 
 cernible, not merely in Roman camp and road, but amid 
 the ruins of the native structures which have survived 
 the vicissitudes of many centuries. A piece of Samian 
 ware from a broch in Orkney,! a plate of brass and a silver 
 fibula from another at Carnbeath, Dunrobin, bronze dishes 
 and Samian ware from the lake dwellings of Galloway and 
 Ayrshire, stones dressed in Roman fashion from earth- 
 houses in Roxburghshire, Midlothian, and Forfarshire, are 
 indications that the inmates of such dwellings of the Iron 
 Age might have witnessed the march of Severus at the 
 beginning of the third century, or that of Theodosius 
 towards the end of the fourth, and joined in the attempt to 
 defeat their purpose of conquest. 
 
 These architectural remains are no longer merely the 
 monuments of the dead. They are the dwellings of the 
 living, and their occupants had evidently become conscious 
 in some degree of that moulding power of the human 
 
 * Anderson, " Scotland in Pagan Times," p. 152. 
 t East Broch of Burray in Orkney. 
 
 C 
 
34 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 spirit, to whose untrammelled exercise modern culture owes 
 its existence. They mean something more than the mere 
 manual dexterity, the mere feeling of taste which we have 
 seen in this and the art of the Bronze Age, though these 
 are very praiseworthy qualities. Thc>- form no contemptible 
 evidence of intellectual activity, of the workings of that 
 creative faculty which marks the progress of man towards 
 the higher civilisation, and which ha\c yielded the greatest 
 triumphs over nature and circumstance. The architect is 
 the first great thinker among a rude people, and this we 
 may affirm of the architect of a structure like the Broch 
 They tell us, too, of the community and the home with a 
 directness which cannot be mistaken, as it might be in the 
 case of the cairn and the stone circle of more remote ages, for 
 here we find no mere memorial of the dead, but the dwell- 
 ings of the living, no "grave goods," but the remains of 
 human habitation. No graves belonging to the pre-christian 
 iron period have, in fact, been discovered. The custom of 
 depositing relics in the resting-places of the dead appears to 
 have become a rare occurrence, if it had not entirel)- gone out 
 of fashion.* Graves in which iron objects had been placed 
 have been explored, but their contents show that they are 
 those of the Viking invader of the ninth and tenth centuries. 
 The structures to which the unmclodious name, brochs, 
 has been given, are found over the whole area of Scotland. 
 Only latel}- a very large one has been investigated at 
 Torwoodlee in Peeblesshire. It possesses a more than 
 ordinary interest, as the northern termination of the Catrail 
 or Picts' Wall, that mysterious line of fortification, which is 
 believed to have extended as far as Peel Fell in North- 
 umberland, and which may yet turn out to be dotted, Roman 
 fashion, with a series of North British strongholds. So far 
 as research has gone, however, the)- arc most numerous in 
 the five northern counties, which alone contain over three 
 hundred. The best preserved specimen is that of Mousa 
 in Shetland ; others might be mistaken at first sight for a 
 cairn of stones, whilst man}', until excavated, are unrecog- 
 nisable under their layer of soil, as the work of a human 
 
 * Vet this ch.iracteristic of pag.inism wns too widespread to pemiit us to 
 believe that it had altogether ilis.ippenred. 
 
BROCHS. 35 
 
 hand. But they all reveal the same peculiarity of con- 
 ception, thoun^h variation in detail, showing the influence of 
 the individual mind, just as any other type of our archi- 
 tecture does, is not wanting. Rising to about a height of 
 perhaps fifty feet, they must have resembled in outward 
 form the Nuraghi of Sardinia, or the Round Towers by 
 which the Celtic monks of a later time sought to protect 
 themselves and their property from the attacks of Scandi- 
 navian pirates. The walls, built of unhewn stone, without 
 mortar, are from nine to twenty feet thick at the base. A 
 single door gives access to the interior, w^hich, in the case of 
 that of Mousa, has a diameter of forty-five feet. On the 
 ground floor, several apartments are formed in the wall, 
 and a circular stair leads up through its interior to the 
 summit. After the first ten feet or so, the centre of the 
 wall becomes hollow, so as to allow the formation, b)- a 
 flooring of stone slabs, of several tiers of galleries, which 
 are connected with one another by the stair. These are 
 lighted by loopholes, looking into the area of the tower, so 
 that, with the exception of the entrance, its exterior pre- 
 sents an unbroken solid surface. However unbeautiful its 
 aspect, its internal arrangement is unique, so much so, that 
 it has been regarded as embodying an architectural type, 
 not only confined to Scotland,* but peculiar among all the 
 structures erected by man. It is not too much to say that 
 it would be difficult to conceive a more ingenious con- 
 trivance in stone for the purpose of defence. That this 
 was the idea of the architect is evident. We cannot believe 
 that the builders of these brochs would have incurred so 
 much labour, or hit upon such a peculiar arrangement of 
 the interior in the construction of a mere dwelling. The 
 beehive hut of stone or boughs probably satisfied the 
 ambition of the most extravagant. Regarded then as a 
 stronghold, it must have admirably served its purpose at a 
 time when the most formidable weapons consisted of the 
 war chariot and the iron sword or spear, even if minus the 
 
 The Irish Cathairs or stone forts bear a resemblance to them, however. 
 See Romilly Allen, " Monumental Hist, of the British Church," pp. 45, 46. 
 The fact of their presence on the Border makes it probable that they may be 
 found south of it. 
 
2,6 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 outworks which give an additional strength to some. They 
 presented to the foe a lofty and unbroken barrier on all 
 sides, and if they succeeded in accomplishing the difficult 
 feat of forcing an entrance through the long and narrow 
 passage to the interior, they found themselves in a narrow 
 court exposed to an easy and almost certain discomfiture 
 from the missiles of their assailants in the galleries in the 
 wall above. In the absence of famine and battering rams 
 of great strength, the occupants of the brochs were prac- 
 ticalh- invincible. 
 
 That they were not the haunts of lawless bands who 
 subsisted by plunder and murder, appears certain when we 
 consider their number and the area over which they are 
 scattered, as well as their situation on or near arable lands. 
 Some of them were not unacquainted with occasional 
 inmates of this character in historic times, when the ro\'ing 
 Viking* dispelled their solitude with the noise of his 
 roystering feasts. The Saga has preserved a love tale or 
 two, to lend them the interest of romance. More than once 
 the gallant jarl found an impregnable refuge for himself and 
 his fair bride from the pursuit of some outwitted rival. But 
 this was an accidental and later use of these ancient Celtic 
 strongholds, which, to judge from the remains of an earlier 
 culture discovered in them b}- Dr Anderson, Mr Rhind, Dr 
 Joass, and others, were occupied about the dawn of the 
 historic era by a people who were settled cultivators of the 
 soil, and who erected them to protect, on emergency, their 
 lives and property. That the}- were not averse to fighting 
 when necessity or advantage rendered it desirable, is more 
 than probable from what we know of the warlike character 
 of the northern tribes, but they were certainly not un- 
 acquainted with the arts and industries of a peasant com- 
 munity.! They ground the corn which they reaped from 
 
 * A Scandinavian origin has been ascribed to them, but the facts are more 
 in favour of the view that they are Celtic — the defensive works of a settled 
 population, not the strongholds of the Norse marauder. 
 
 t I differ from Dr Anderson, who represents them as exclusively peace- 
 al)le, industrious, farming communities, forgetting that history presents us 
 with an independent, spirited, and booty-loving people, who descended 
 from their hills and forests into the Roman settlements on the slightest 
 provocation. 
 
LAKE DWELLINGS. 37 
 
 the surrounding lands in stone querns or handmills. They 
 reared the goat, the sheep, the ox, the pig, the dog, and the 
 horse, hunted the deer, and fished the bays and lochs. The 
 presence of moulds and crucibles shows that they made 
 their own ornaments and articles of domestic use, such as 
 pins of bone and bronze, stone lamps, and drinking cups, 
 &c. Native craftsmen manufactured the iron swords, 
 spears, knives, axes, chisels, pincers, &c., which formed 
 their weapons and implements. The women did the 
 spinning and weaving,* made the pottery, and ground the 
 grain. Thus those gaunt walls, the witness may be of the 
 want and fear that war begets, resounded likewise with the 
 cheerier notes of a rude but settled domestic life. 
 
 The manufactured articles, as well as the animal remains, 
 discovered in the lake dwellings mostly resemble those found 
 in the brochs. These dwellings are composed of various 
 la}-ers of logs, rising tier upon tier over the bottom of the 
 lake, with masses of brushwood, stones, and gravel, inter- 
 spersed, until a height of several feet abov'e the surface has 
 been attained. A paling of oak piles, whose opposite sides 
 were connected by transverse beams, mortised into them at 
 intervals, as the work of building proceeded, served to bind 
 the whole mass firmly together. The uppermost layer of 
 logs thus afforded a solid and stable area on which the lake 
 dwellers erected their huts. To obviate the risk of falling 
 into the water, to which their children and cattle were 
 exposed, the little hamlet rising on its surface was encircled 
 by a barrier of hurdles or similar fence. The canoes, which 
 have been rescued in a wonderful state of preservation from 
 the deep mud in which they have long lain, afforded means of 
 communication with the shore, but access was also provided 
 by a submerged wooden gangway, for the passage of their 
 cattle.t 
 
 * At least the discover}' of spindle whorls, to the number of thirty in 
 one broch, and the presence along with them of eighteen combs, resem- 
 liling in form those still used in India, and several smoothing bone instru- 
 ments, much worn, have been regarded as warranting this conclusion. 
 
 + As an example of the wild notions that often pass for learning, take the 
 following, which is the latest I have seen: — "The poems of the British 
 Merddin or Merlin clearly indicate that the practice of building houses in the 
 water arose out of the desire to escape from the superintendence of reforming 
 
38 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 Unlike the brochs, the type is not confined to Scotland. 
 It was at one time a common form of dwelling throughout 
 Europe, and was known to Herodotus,* whose description 
 of the village settlement on the Roumelian lake furnishes 
 us with a living picture of the semi-civilised communities, 
 who, with no less skill than labour, raised the Pfahlbauten 
 of the Swiss lakes.f the crannogs of the Irish bogs, the 
 Scottish lochs, and the English meres and fens. Their 
 historic antiquity is thus very great, but, as we have already 
 seen, this kind of defensive structure has been assigned to 
 as early a period as the Age of Stone. Those belonging 
 to a later time are characterised by greater boldness of idea 
 and skill in execution, being no longer built on shallows 
 near the shore, but in deep water and at a considerable 
 distance from the land. Those investigated by Dr Monro I 
 in the lochs of Galloway and Ayrshire are no inconsiderable 
 specimens of this kind of architecture. Their builders 
 cannot claim the merit of having invented a contrivance 
 uniquely ingenious in the sense that the brochs are. They 
 merely made use of a derived idea, and we may see in the 
 ruinsof their pile settlements— which were evidently occupied 
 about the period of the Roman rule in Scotland — onl)- the 
 improved imitation of the rude attempt of the primeval 
 savage to protect himself from danger. Dr Monro, in his 
 lavish praise of the mechanical genius of the lake-dwellers 
 of North Britain, has overlooked this. But it argues no 
 little resource and industry to construct so simple, yet so 
 effective a fortress. To lay in the soft bottom of a deep 
 lake the foundation of a firm structure, which formed per- 
 haps the home of many successive generations, and whose 
 ruins preserve even yet a considerable portion of their work 
 intact, is a feat of engineering in its way. He further thinks 
 that there is only one hypothesis that can satisfactorily 
 
 rulers, who sought to abolish human sacrifices. . . . There is no evidence 
 that the Cymri or any other Celtic people took to pile villages, . . . their 
 structures were of stone, not of wood (1), and their foundation was necessarily 
 the solid earth" (Cainpl)cil, "The llittites: Their Inscriptions and History," 
 ii. 298). 
 
 * Bk. v., c. 16. 
 
 + Investigated and described liy l>r Ferdinand Keller. 
 
 + " Ancient .Scottish Lake Dwellings." 
 
EARTH HOUSES. 39 
 
 account for all the facts and phenomena which his investi- 
 gations have placed before the reader, viz., that these lake 
 dwellings were constructed by the population of the south- 
 west of Scotland, for the protection of their lives and 
 movable property from the attacks of Angles. Picts, and 
 Scots, on the withdrawal of the Roman troops. The ancient 
 date of these structures in Switzerland gives, however, a 
 much wider scope for fixing their date in Scotland, especially 
 in view of what was apparently the warlike state of society 
 before the advent of the Romans. 
 
 We are indebted to the plough for the discovery of the 
 earth houses, which are found mostly underneath arable 
 land, from the Border to Shetland. Like the brochs and 
 the lake dwellings, they are constructed on a uniform plan, 
 viz., that of a long, low, narrow, curved gallery, with sides, 
 floor, and roof of stone — always widening and increasing in 
 height from the low and narrow entrance inwards. Like 
 the lake dwellings, too, they seem to have been in common 
 use in Northern Europe. Posidonius mentions their use as 
 grain stores by the population of Southern Britain. They 
 must have resembled the underground structures mentioned 
 by Tacitus,* which ordinarily served the purpose of granaries 
 among the Germans, and which afforded them shelter from 
 the rigours of winter and a secret retreat for their property 
 in time of invasion. They formed, too, a common mode of 
 dwelling among American tribes at a much lower stage of 
 culture than the Germans or the Southern Britons, since 
 they resorted to this type of structure when unable to take 
 advantage of the ready shelter of caves. They appear in the 
 Saras as the haunt of the outlaw. The traces of an over- 
 p-round dwelling in connection with some of these in North 
 Britain shows, however, that this was not their ordinary pur- 
 pose, and the contents of those at Cairn Conan and other 
 places disclose the presence of a settled population, who, like 
 the occupants of the other structures of the pagan Iron Age, 
 had to a certain extent felt the influence of Roman civilisa- 
 tion—cultivated grain, reared cattle and sheep, and used, in 
 addition to stone utensils of a rude character, wheel-made 
 pottery and implements of iron, bronze, and lead. 
 
 * " Germania," c. xvi. 
 
40 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 There is little in the picture that we are thus enabled to 
 conjure from these structures of the pagan Iron Age in 
 Scotland that does not harmonise with the first historic 
 glimpses of the condition of the people furnished b}- 
 Greek and Roman authors. P}-theas, who was sent, several 
 centuries before the Christian era, by the Greek merchants 
 of Marseilles on a vo)-age of discover}' along the western 
 coast of Europe, to Britain, the Baltic, and the far north, 
 wrote an account of his observations and adventures, which 
 was as popular in the ancient world as the travels of Captain 
 Cook in the modern. The loss of his diary is one of those 
 irretrievable calamities from which the earl}- histor}- of so 
 man}- countries has suffered, but fragments have been 
 preserv-ed by his commentators and critics, Eratosthenes, 
 Pol}-bius, Strabo, and others.* This accurate " Humboldt 
 of his age "t remained, on his own confession, for some time 
 in Britain, and visited most of its accessible parts. All 
 that remains of his observations in reference to the north of 
 the island is confined to a note of the strange phenomenon 
 presented by the absence of night in summer, but the sug- 
 gestive picture which he drew of the inhabitants of the 
 southern regions has fortunatel}' been handed down. " The 
 natives," he tells us, " collect the sheaves of wheat in great 
 barns and thrash out the corn there, because the}- have so 
 little sunshine that our open thrashing-places would be of 
 little use in that land of clouds and rain. There are 
 cultivated fruits, a good abundance of some domestic 
 animals, a scarcity of others ; the inhabitants feed on millet 
 and other vegetables, and on fruit, and the roots of plants, 
 and they make a beverage of wheat and honey.";J: 
 
 Posidonius, a later traveller, who is believed to have 
 visited the east of Britain, besides the mining district of 
 Cornwall, is credited with the authorship of a similar 
 picture of the agricultural communities, resembling man}- 
 of the African tribes of our time, which then inhabited the 
 largest of the islands " that lie in the ocean." Naturally 
 the southern tribes had reached a more advanced stage of 
 
 * See Elton, "Origins of English Hislory," p. 14. 
 
 + Ijrehmer, " Entdeckungcn im Aiterthum," ii,, p. 345. 
 
 J Strabo, iv. 201. Cf. Elton, pp. 30-32. 
 
EVIDENCE HARMONISES WITH FIRST HIST. GLIMPSES. 4I 
 
 culture, owing- to intercourse with their kindred on the 
 opposite shores of the channel, who were powerfull)' in- 
 fluenced by the civilisation of the Mediterranean. Speaking 
 of Belerium, the modern Cornwall, Posidonius says, "The 
 inhabitants of that promontory are very fond of strangers, 
 and, from their intercourse with foreign merchants, are 
 civilised in their manner of life."* Caesar and Strabo, on 
 the other hand, had gleaned a little information about the 
 interior tribes, and as we should expect, represent them as 
 considerably lower in the scale of civilisation. But it is 
 difficult to believe that even at that earl}' time the}' were 
 almost wholly unacquainted with the cultivation of the 
 soil. " Most of the inland people," writes the former,-f- 
 " grow no corn, and are clad in the skins of beasts." On 
 the other hand, we may not forget the general assertion of 
 Tacitus, more than a century afterwards, that " the soil of 
 Britain is fertile, and }'ields corn in great plenty.":]: 
 
 The state of the country, and the comparativel}- thin 
 population, preclude the idea of agriculture on a modern 
 scale. The trackless forest, the wide moor, the un- 
 drained plain, covered with furze or buried underneath 
 treacherous marshes, were for centuries after the commence- 
 ment of the historic period, the haunt of the wild beast — 
 the wolf, the bear, the wild ox. The progress of cultivation 
 was but very gradual. Even the Romans, the eloquence of 
 their orators notwithstanding, left many a square mile of 
 unreclaimed ground as virgin soil for the spade and the 
 plough of the Christian monk in after-times. Many an 
 acre in Aberdeenshire has been reclaimed from the supre- 
 macy of whin and broom since m}^ bo}^hood. Still the 
 northern tribes to which we are introduced in the pages of 
 Tacitus are not mere hordes of naked savages as in the 
 hearsa}' and credulous reports of Herodian and Dion 
 Cassius. They are an active, high-spirited people, and if the 
 great historian may sometimes have heightened the colours 
 of his descriptions for the purpose of adding effect to the 
 picture of his hero, it is not too much to infer that the culture 
 of a people whose defence of home and fatherland cost 
 Agricola several campaigns, who thwarted so effectuall}^ 
 
 * Diod. Sic, V. 22. t "De Bell. Gall.,'' v. 14. : "Agricola," c. xii. 
 
42 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 the ambition of Severus, and eventually overwhelmed the 
 Roman province itself, was at least that which is represented 
 in the ruins of the brochs, and which evidently extended 
 into, and partly beyond, the Roman period. 
 
 The fact that these structures — brochs, lake dwellings, 
 underground houses — like the numerous forts that crown 
 the lesser ridges of our Scottish hills, are meant for defence 
 or shelter is very significant. It throws an ominous light 
 on the condition of the country during the period of their 
 occupation. They are just the structures which we should 
 expect to find among a people to whom security of life and 
 property was a very precarious privilege. They had not 
 reached the stage of culture which makes an effective 
 government and a united nation possible. The first 
 historic glimpse that we get of the population of North 
 Britain, from the map of Ptolemy and the pages of Tacitus, 
 tends to confirm this conclusion. At the dawn of reliable 
 history we find the inhabitants of Caledonia divided into a 
 large number of tribes. The Novantai and the Selgovas, 
 whose name has perpetuated itself in the modern Solway, 
 occupied the wilds of Galloway. North and east from them 
 were the Dumnonii and the Otadini, who shared between 
 them the remainder of the lowlands south of the Forth. 
 The inhabitants of the regions beyond that river appear in 
 the Latin poets of the first century (Lucan, Martial, 
 Valerius Flaccus, Statins) under the general name of 
 the Caledonians, but they consisted of numerous and 
 frequently hostile tribes such as Caledonians and Vacomagi, 
 in parts of the modern Argyleand Perth shires; Vernicomes 
 and Taixali, in P^orfar and Aberdeen ; PIpidii, Cerones, 
 Carini, along the north-west coast ; Cornavii and Decants, 
 in the remote north-east. According to the latest 
 authority* on this subject, the most northerly of these clans 
 were a non- Aryan, and consequently non -Celtic race, and 
 represented such of the earlier inhabitants of Britain as had 
 not amalgamated with the hordes of Celtic invaders, but 
 had been forced by the Goidel or Gaelic Celt ever farther 
 into the northern fastnesses, as he, in his turn, had to yield 
 
 * Professor Rhys, " Ccllic Britain, " p. 223. Cf. " Kliiml Lectures," by 
 the same author. 
 
TRIBAL DIVISION AND WARFARE. 43 
 
 [Tround to the Brythonic Celts, who came after him. This 
 view is merely the result of the difficult attempt to extract 
 historic information from Celtic names compared with what 
 its author considers to be the traces of a non-Celtic language 
 in North Britain. It may, at least, claim in its favour the 
 probability that the course of invasion from the Continent 
 would naturally be what it implies — a gradual expansion 
 northward of those who did not amalgamate with the 
 invader, leading us to look for such remnants of the original 
 population in the more remote and less attractive districts 
 of the island. Professor Rhys is further of opinion, that, 
 though at first rendered tributary by the Goidelic tribes, 
 they had succeeded, before the departure of the Romans, 
 in recovering supremacy in northern independent Britain. 
 However this may be, we find the population beyond the 
 Roman frontier, in the latter part of the fourth century, 
 still divided into at least two leading tribes, while the 
 generic name of the Caledonian of the poets had given 
 place to that of the Picts, first mentioned by Eumenius 
 about the end of the third century (,296). This twofold 
 division is noticed by Dion Cassius and Ammianus 
 Marcellinus.* It is still observable in the time of Bseda.f 
 who speaks of the Northern and Southern Picts. The 
 name refers to the habit of tattooing the body,:): and was 
 originally applicable to all the inhabitants of Britain, 
 but towards the end of the Roman occupation it became 
 limited, with the probable exception of the inhabitants of 
 Galloway, to the tribes beyond the northern wall, among 
 whom the practice naturally survived longer than in the 
 south. 
 
 Thus the divided condition of the population, as dis- 
 closed by the first historic glimpses, is such as explains the 
 presence of the many strongholds and shelters whose ruins 
 
 * The former names them Caledonii and MeatK, the latter Dicalidonre and 
 Vecturiones. 
 
 + "Hist. EccL." lib. iii., c. 4. 
 
 J The custom was widely prevalent in the ancient world, as we learn from 
 Herodotus and others. Sidonius, Bishop of Clermont in the fifth centurj', 
 graphically speaks of some Saxons who daubed their faces with blue stain. I 
 myself have seen in South Africa the Red Kaffirs who made use of clay of this 
 colour to improve their appearance. 
 
44 CULTURE IX EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 still have a sifrnificant testimony. Though they could com- 
 bine when threatened by a common danger, as Agricola and 
 Severus found by experience in many a hard-contested fight, 
 and though, under the ominous name of Picts, they shook 
 the Roman power in Britain to its base more than once, 
 the bond seems to have been fragile at the best. The sound 
 of strife, the clang of sword and spear, rang through the 
 glens and forests of Caledonia, and the combatants were not 
 always Roman and native. The smoke of burning village, 
 the desolation and carnage that mark the track of human 
 hate and strife, bespoke the presence of internal feud as 
 well as of the foreign conqueror. Cciesar,* speaking of the 
 Gaulish tribes, significantly remarks that previous to his 
 time they were engaged in almost annual conflicts, either 
 by aggressive expeditions against some neighbour or by 
 defending their territory from external attack. Tacitus,! 
 in like manner, speaks of the Britons as a " fierce and 
 savage people, running wild in the woods, ever addicted to 
 a life of warfare," and as divided into factions under various 
 chieftains — a circumstance, he adds, "highly favourable to 
 the Roman arms against a warlike people — independent, 
 fierce, and obstinate." Tribal wars, invasion from without, 
 this was the histor}' of Caledonia for generations before the 
 advent of the legions, as it was for so many centuries after- 
 wards, even when central government had found expression 
 in the form of the feudal monarch)-. 
 
 Nevertheless, these structures, if the)- tell of strife and 
 invasion, tell also of the desire, in some degree, and the 
 precaution to avoid them. They are significant, it is true, 
 of unsettled times, significant also of the preference of their 
 occupants for an industrious domestic life over the pursuit 
 of war, atid the love of plunder, at a time when every 
 human abode of which we have an)- knowledge was a 
 stronghold or a hiding-place, and when the temptation to 
 disorganisation was a strong one. The effort to maintain 
 the community and the home, independence and industrv, 
 such as the contents of these brochs, lake dwellings, and 
 earth houses reveal, must count as an important fact in the 
 culture of a people. Certainly it was not that which is 
 * •' De Bell. Gall.," vi. 15. +" Agricola,"' c. xxi. ; (■/: c. xii. 
 
THE CALEDONIAN OF THE ROMAN EPOCH. 45 
 
 conjured before us by a Herodian or a Dion Cassius.* 
 The Caledonian of the Roman epoch was no brutah'sed 
 savage or semi-aquatic animal, who passed the greater 
 portion of his time swimming in the lochs, or hiding from 
 his foe in the mud, with only his head visible above the 
 marsh, who roamed without hut or hamlet over the rugged 
 mountains and the bare moors, and who subsisted almost 
 exclusively on the produce of the chase, or on the nuts 
 and wild fruits of the woods. Such a description might 
 have applied to the savage tribes of the Stone Age, and it 
 is not inconceivable that, just as in the case of the remote 
 inhabitant of the glens and islands in modern times com- 
 pared with those of the cities and fertile tracts of the 
 Lowlands, there were communities whose condition was 
 rude and primitive. But it is impossible to believe that 
 this was an accurate account of the warlike peoples of the 
 third and fourth centuries of our era, whose inroads spread 
 terror and ravage over the Roman province. Whilst 
 Herodian describes the Caledonians as barbarians of a very 
 low type, the fact that he mentions that they possessed 
 iron swords and war chariots does not harmonise with the 
 description, and is an evidence of the absence of accurate 
 observation. However wretched their condition might 
 have appeared to the highly civilised Roman or Greek 
 traveller, we must guard against accepting the tales which 
 had their origin in the " yarns " of the Roman soldier, and 
 which were welcomed as fact by a credulous and supersti- 
 tious author like Dion Cassius. " It frequently happened," 
 says Tacitus,-f- in his description of Agricola's campaign 
 against the Caledonians, " that in the same camp were seen 
 the infantry and cavalry intermingled with the sailors, all 
 indulging their joy, full of their adventures, and magnify- 
 ing the history of their exploits ; the soldier describing in 
 the usual style of military ostentation the forests which he 
 had passed, the mountains which he had climbed, and the 
 barbarians whom he had put to the rout ; while the 
 sailor, no less important, told of storms and tempests, the 
 wonders of the deep, and the spirit with which he had 
 
 * " Herodian," iii. 14 ; Dion Cassius (Xiphilinus, Ixxvi. 12). 
 t " Agricola," c. x.\v. 
 
46 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 conquered winds and waves." It is significant that the 
 same author has omitted to enliven his pages with such 
 stories, preferring, as he puts it, " the plain truth, to con- 
 jecture which previous writers adorned with all the graces 
 of language."* Even Procopius.t as late as the sixth 
 century, gravely invests the region north of the wall of 
 Antoninus with purgatorial horrors that might stand for a 
 picture from Dante or Milton. These northern latitudes, 
 with their rugged scenery and wild seas, all the more 
 impressive from their remoteness from, and unlikeness to the 
 fairer lands of the south, afforded from very ancient times 
 an apt theme for the imaginative Greek romancers, whose 
 productions, such as " Wonders beyond Thule," " Hyper- 
 boreans," &c., were among the most popular works of fiction 
 of antiquity. From these arose the travellers' tales of 
 one-footed men, of Germans with monstrous feet and ears, 
 of fantastic kings in Thule, and Irish tribes who devoured 
 their parents. They thus allowed fancy to plaj' the same 
 havoc with the histor}^ and geography of the islands and 
 peninsulas of the far north, as in the case of the unex- 
 plored regions of the remote south. '• The ancients," says 
 Gibbon,:): "who had a very faint and imperfect knowledge 
 of the great peninsula of Africa, were sometimes tempted 
 to believe that the torrid zone must ever remain destitute 
 of inhabitants, and they sometimes amused their fancy by 
 filling the vacant spaces with headless men, or rather mon- 
 sters, with horrid and cloven-footed sat}'rs, with fabulous 
 centaurs, and with human pigmies, who waged a bold and 
 doubtful warfare against the cranes." With such pictures 
 of a little known or inferior race we must contrast the 
 testimony of those ruins found in the glens and the lochs 
 of Scotland, which reveal a stage of culture, barbarian 
 indeed, but not savage. All the same there is a danger in 
 using such terms as "culture,"' "civilisation," "organisa- 
 tion," and so forth, in regard to these prehistoric ancestors 
 of ours — a danger which our archaeologists iiave not alwajs 
 
 * " Agiicola," c. .\. 
 
 t So deadly was the air, so horrible the reptiles, that it would be impossible 
 for a man to live half an hour. 
 
 X " Decline ami Fall of the Roman Empire,'" vol. iv., p. 204 (Milman's 
 edition). 
 
THE REALITY OF THINGS. 47 
 
 avoided — the danger, viz., of forgetting the reality of things. 
 While a high civilisation may co-exist among the same 
 people with one that is much ruder, as in the case of the 
 dwellers in the Black Houses of the Hebrides, and the 
 makers of the coarse Barvas pottery, who inhabit the same 
 country with the owner of the magnificent villa, and the 
 manufacturer of the finest hardware, wc may safely con- 
 clude that the possession of implements or ornaments which 
 reveal cleverness of workmanship, or the abilit}- to build 
 structures of no mean strength, was not associated with 
 that degree of civilisation which we to-day would call 
 comfortable, or even bearable. Compared with the con- 
 veniences and requirements of modern times, or with the 
 state of civilisation in ancient Greece, Rome, Persia, or 
 Egypt, the existence of our forefathers, whether of the 
 Iron or of the Bronze Age, must have been rude at the 
 best, and would be wretched in the extreme to us their 
 refined posterity. That it was natural and enjo}'able to 
 them is likely enough, for man is always more or less the 
 creature of his age ; and it is, alas ! the curse of a high 
 civilisation like ours to break in upon the rude content- 
 ment, the natural simplicity of the barbarian, and degrade 
 and kill him off with vices, or with improvements to which 
 he is a stranger. Only let us not idealise away the realism 
 of such scenes by the use of a learned terminology, as the 
 archsologists are apt to do. Culture, civilisation, organisa- 
 tion, &c., the remains of these dim ages, we have sought to 
 traverse, do disclose, but only in a relative sense. Even 
 Augustus, it has been facetiously, though not quite cor- 
 rectly, remarked, had neither glass to his windows, nor a 
 shirt to his back 1 Whilst then giving our rude forefathers 
 credit for ingenuity, for taste, for skill — culture of a kind — 
 we should have to make large reservations in the use of 
 words when drawing a comparison with the culture of our 
 age, if we would keep by the truth. 
 
48 cClture in early scotlaxd. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CELTIC PAGANISM. 
 
 WE may safely conclude that there was no written 
 literature among the northern tribes in prehistoric 
 times. So long as our forefathers remained 
 savages — cave-dwellers, who used only stone implements 
 and weapons — their stage of culture precludes the idea. 
 " No race of men in the Stone Age," says Lubbock,* " had 
 attained the art of communicating facts by means of letters, 
 or even by the far ruder system of picture writing, nor does 
 anything perhaps surprise the savage more than to find that 
 Europeans can communicate with one another by means of 
 a few black scratches on a piece of paper." Not that the 
 savage does not possess qualities of mind which, when 
 trained, might produce the most exquisitely naive poetry. 
 " Savages have been for untold ages, and still are, living in 
 the myth-making stage of the human mind,"t — amid those 
 fancies, whose realism brightens or terrorises their existence. 
 They understand so far the art of interpretation, of com- 
 bination, inasmuch as the}' can give expression in tale or 
 song to their unsophisticated contemplation of the uni\-erse. 
 We may, indeed, hear the echo of a primc\al antiquity in 
 some portions of that traditional lore in which Scotland is 
 so rich. Nor was the cave-dweller of the Paktolithic age a 
 contemptible artist, as we have seen. But the art of com- 
 municating his thoughts, otherwise than by a childish 
 realistic language, was a mystery to him. In one sense, the 
 savage of the Stone Age did give expression to his thoughts 
 in more durable, significant fashion, in the great stone piles 
 which cover the dead, and testify to the presence of definite 
 ideas, but this dumb eloquence in stone is the only e\idence 
 of any attempt to render his thoughts in outward fashion, 
 which the savage of the Stone Age has, or could have left 
 
 * " Orijjin of Civilisation," p. 47. 
 
 + Tylor, " Primitive Culture," p. 283. 
 
PAGAN LITERATURE. 49 
 
 US. We may see in the mysterious tracings on the blocks 
 of Aberdeenshire granite the attempt to render thought by 
 tangible signs.* In the, to me, inscrutable forms of the 
 double disc and the crescent, the fish, the serpent, the bird,&c., 
 may be the record of the religious ideas of far remote times. 
 These hieroglyphic inscriptions may thus represent, like the 
 use of images and pictures in Catholic countries, an attempt 
 at popular education, and some future Champollion may 
 disclose their significance, but they do not probably reach 
 beyond the Celtic settlement, if, indeed, as Dr Anderson 
 asserts, they are not symbols of the early Christian period.! 
 At all events I do not think that the bards, who, accord- 
 ing to Lucan, perpetuated the memory of the fallen brave 
 by their praises, wrote their poems,:): or the priests their 
 prayers, or the chiefs their laws, before the dawn of our era. 
 The Gaulish Druids were acquainted with letters, and made 
 their calculations in Greek characters, but this was due to 
 the influence of the Greek culture of Marseilles. Speaking 
 of the romanising of the natives of Southern Gaul during 
 the first century B.C., Mommsen§ says, " In early times 
 Hellenism had also to a certain degree influenced these 
 regions ; the elements of a higher culture, the stimulation of 
 the culture of the vine and the olive to the u.se of writing 
 and to the coining of money came to them from Massillia." 
 The ruder and more conservative devotees il of the Druid 
 
 * Some have seen in these a trace of Phoenician influence. The Phoenicians 
 of Carthagena and Cadiz might have been responsible for these and for the 
 introduction of letters at an early period, if their trade extended, as was long 
 believed, to the Scilly Isles ; but the Cassiterides of Herodotus and other 
 authors are now believed to have been a group of islands off the coast of Spain, 
 and the British tin trade with the Continent was begun at a later time by the 
 merchants of Southern Gaul. Lubbock, however, is a strong advocate of the 
 Phoenician connection with the Scilly Isles. 
 
 t The wild but erudite author of " The Hittites: their History and Inscrip- 
 tions," will have it that these mysterious markings are the handwriting of this 
 ancient Turanian people. He confidently asserts, too, that many of the chief 
 figures of Celtic lore are only Hittites in disguise. The Highlander in search 
 of a pedigree need now be at no loss. 
 
 X "The Britons," says Tacitus, "like all barbarous nations, have no 
 written records " (" Agricola," c. ii.). 
 
 § " History of Rome," iv. 214 (Dicksons translation). 
 
 II Cresar, " De Bell. Gall.," lib. vi., c. 13, says that in order to make them- 
 selves themselves more thoroughly acquainted with its rites, Gaulish students 
 
 went to Britain. 
 
 D 
 
50 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 cult in Britain trusted to unwritten tradition — that living 
 literature of the early ages of a people.* 
 
 Of the religious cult that prevailed in the earlier ages of 
 Britain, we have no knowledge beyond what is disclosed by 
 the tombs of the dead. The presence of " grave goods " is, 
 as we have seen, an evidence that our ancestors of remote 
 prehistoric times had a faith. This is more than has been 
 asserted of several rude tribes of modern times. Observers 
 not inclined to scepticism in such matters — Christian mis- 
 sionaries, both Catholic and Protestant — have recorded their 
 inability to discover any trace of religious belief or practice 
 among the African and American communities, whose gross 
 ignorance they sought to dispel. Cassalis, Moffat, Father 
 Dobritzhoffer, were not likely to rush to hasty conclusions 
 of this kind, yet the evidence from which they drew them 
 has been found, on closer scrutiny, not to warrant such 
 inferences. Facts are recorded which, as Dr Tylor has 
 shown, contradict these assertions. We mean religion in a 
 relative sense, of course. It would be in vain to look for 
 any reasoned system of belief among those who in reason 
 are mere children. There is force in the remark of 
 Lubbock,! " As regards the lowest races of men, it seems 
 to me even a priori\Q.xy difficult to suppose that a people so 
 backward as to be unable to count their own fingers should 
 be sufficiently advanced in their intellectual conceptions as 
 to have any system of belief worthy of the name of a 
 religion." A system of belief. Certain!}- not. That would 
 imply a dialectic process far bc}-ond the powers of the 
 savage ; but there may be religions without system, and the 
 religious instinct or sentiment asserts itself in some form or 
 other in every human soul capable of fear, wonder, longing. 
 The idea of the supernatural ma}- be absent, for the savage 
 does not define in the manner of the theologian of the 
 
 * O'Curry, however (lect. i.), is of opinion, which he bases on MSS. 
 belonging, as he thinks, to the period of the introduction of Christianity into 
 Ireland in the fifth century, that the Druids were in possession of books before 
 the arrival of .St Patrick. Many ancient writings fell a prey to the Danish 
 occupation of Ireland. Hut what space the word "ancient" covers is a 
 question, and the enthusiastic Celtic scholars may be trusted not to limit it too 
 much. 
 
 t "Origin of Civilisation," p. 213. 
 
Tin; RELIGION OF THE CELT. $1 
 
 higher faith.s. Yet some notion of the immaterial exerts 
 its influence, so tar as our knowledge goes, on every reason- 
 able being. 
 
 Whatever the rude creed of the remoter inhabitants of 
 the Stone and Bronze Ages, our Celtic ancestors had 
 attained a comparatively advanced stage of religious cul- 
 ture. We find them, in the pages of Cssar and Tacitus, 
 in possession of a priestly ritual, with temples, idols, and 
 sacrifices, devoted to the service of the divine hierarchy. 
 The Celts, like other branches of the Aryan race, carried 
 A\ith them, in their wanderings from their predisruption 
 home, a theology in which their ideas of the divine had 
 found expression. Their religion bore the same character 
 as that of the Greeks or the Latins, or any other Aryan 
 people — a system of polytheism, more or less elaborate and 
 refined, according to their state of culture. The household 
 had its altar, at which the head of the family, as among 
 the ancient Germans, offered the worship of its members, 
 until supplanted by the priesth- class, which succeeded in 
 usurping the functions of religion.* By the time that 
 history begins to throw a dim light on the sombre seclu- 
 sion of the north, the Celtic tribes of Britain and Gaul 
 were a priest-ridden people, and if they had asserted in 
 some cases their right to free government, they submitted 
 to a terrible form of sacerdotal tyranny. " The whole 
 nation of the Gauls is extremely religious," says Caesar, 
 " and therefore those who are afflicted with grievous diseases, 
 or exposed to dangers in war or otherwise, either offer 
 men as victims, or vow to sacrifice themselves. At these 
 sacrifices the Druids officiate." t The wrath of their 
 savage deities, he further tells us, could only be appeased 
 by the shedding of human blood, and when the supply of 
 criminals, who were thought the most acceptable to the gods, 
 failed, they did not hesitate to force the innocent to mount 
 the sacrificial pile, whose awful glare lighted up the oak 
 groves, where they celebrated their inhuman rites. ^ Other 
 
 * Prof. Rhys holds that Druidism was originally not a Celtic cult, but 
 adopted by the Celts from a non-Aryan people in the west of Europe, whom 
 they conquered. Evidence of this is not forthcoming, however. 
 
 t "De Bell. Gall.," vi., c. i6. 
 
 i IhiJ. 
 
52 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 writers * add that they sometimes crucified, sometimes slew, 
 their victims with the sword, or with arrows, and drew their 
 auguries from the contortions of their bodies, or from the 
 flow of their blood. So prodigal of human life were those 
 grim priests, that they were wont to proclaim that the crops 
 would be abundant in proportion to the harvest of death. 
 The imagination quails before the awful picture — the smoke 
 and blood-bcgrimmed Druids, in richl)- embroidered robes, 
 resplendent with ornaments of massive gold, mingling 
 their savage chant with the shrieks of their victims — and 
 yet we need not assume that it was overdrawn, or that 
 Caesar was merely recounting the hearsay and untrust- 
 worthy evidence which he, as a practical soldier, took no 
 trouble to question, and Pliny was simply conjuring the 
 spectres of his own credulit\-.t Inhumanit)- of this sort, 
 springing from priestly delusion and despotism, is, alas ! no 
 solitar}- exception in the annals of mankind. It is not so 
 long ago that Europe was ringing with the cry of religious 
 persecution, and the burning of witches and heretic preachers 
 was accounted the sacred duty of the Christian magistrate. 
 Even in our day brutal orgies are celebrated in man}' an 
 African grove, and the watchword of some fanatic might 
 spread death and hatred in many a civilised communit}-. 
 This phase of the crude and inhuman fanaticism which 
 man has so often mistaken for religion, and which was 
 grimly exemplified by the Druids, left its trace far into 
 historic times in Europe. The idea not merely perpetuated 
 itself, till comparatively recentl}-, in some of the popular 
 beliefs regarding witchcraft — such, for instance, as that one 
 man must die in order to secure the recover}- of another:^: — 
 but the fact was not unknown in Northern Europe as late 
 as the tenth century. At Upsala there was a celebrated 
 temple, round which the ghastl}' displa}- of the corpses of 
 the human victims sacrificed b}' the priests of Odin was to 
 be seen in the time of Adam of Bremen. The practice 
 only }'ielded to the influence of Christianit}' in those 
 
 * Strabo, "Geog.," lil). iv. ; Dio.l. .'^ic. '• Hist.." lil.. v., c. 31. Cf. Pliny, 
 •' Hist. Nat.," lib. xvi. 
 
 t Burton, " History of Scotland,'" vol. i., ch. vi. 
 
 X See some striking instances in Leslie Forbes, " The Early Races of 
 Scotland." 
 
ITS SANGUINARY RITES. 53 
 
 northern countries which had not come under the civih's- 
 ing influence of the Romans. Even after the humanising 
 doctrines of Jesus had become the popular creed, the power 
 of this grim rite occasionally asserted itself in the practice 
 of slaying or burying a victim, before or during the erec- 
 tion of a building, in the belief that only thus could it be 
 made secure.* " L'usage de tuer un homme pour que son 
 esprit demeure attache a I'endroit de sa mort et en soit le 
 gardien se pratique dans de nombreux pays." f Though 
 such bloody rites were expressly forbidden by the Romans, 
 B.C. 95, the custom lingered till the time of Constantine, 
 when a gladiator appears to have been sacrificed to 
 Jupiter Latialis. A people, who looked upon the savage 
 combats of the circus, or the slaughter by each other of 
 the unfortunate captives that added glory to the triumph 
 of the Roman commander, would not be easily shocked by 
 an occasional excess of this kind. There is indeed evi- 
 dence enough that the Aryan race in its earlier stages of 
 culture had not surmounted the sombre idea that so long 
 coloured man's relation to his deity, and which is but 
 thinly disguised sometimes in the beautiful diction of 
 Hebrew patriarch and prophet. The Celts of Gaul and 
 Britain need not therefore be credited with merely having 
 adopted it:|: from the non- Aryan race that they conquered 
 and partly absorbed in their progress westwards. The 
 suppression by the Romans was owing, not merely to the 
 sanguinary character of its rites, but to the power and 
 patriotism of the priests. " The Roman government, which 
 elsewhere let alone all local peculiarities of worship with 
 indifferent toleration, contemplated this Druidic system, 
 not merely in its extravagances, but as a whole, w^ith 
 apprehension. The institution of the Gallic annual festi- 
 val in the purely Roman capital of the country (Lugdinum, 
 Lyons), and with the exclusion of any link attaching to the 
 national culture, was evidently a counter-move of the 
 
 * The Old Irish "Life of Cohimba '' represents him as sacrificing 
 Odran when landing in lona, in order to gain the protection of Heaven — a 
 tradition which at least points to the prevalence of the custom in ancient 
 times. 
 
 t Gaidos, " Melusine," iv. 16. 
 
 X Rhys, " Celtic Britain," p. 69. 
 
54 CULTURE IX EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 government against the old religion of the country, with 
 its yearly council of priests at Chartres, the centre of the 
 Gallic land. . . . That the occupation of Britain, which 
 had been from of old the chief seat of these priestly 
 actings, was in good part resolved on in order to get 
 thereby at the root of the evil, will be fully set forth in the 
 .sequel."* Accordingly, in this island, we find the priests, 
 who had remained untinctured b}- the Greek culture of 
 Southern Gaul, where the sacred groves were schools of 
 instruction in philosophy, astronomy, geography, and theo- 
 logy.! as well as places of sacrifice, in possession of the 
 more literal orthodoxy that signalises a cruder culture, and 
 animated b\- a fierce patriotic spirit, fomenting resistance 
 and rebellion, inspiring their followers with the daring of 
 fanaticism, and inflaming them with the glory of fighting 
 for their gods and their altars, as well as for their homes 
 and hearths. Hence they were particular!}- obnoxious to 
 the Roman invaders, and their ritual and power, not merely 
 as priests, but as lawgivers and judges,:^ were overwhelmed 
 in the ruins of the national independence. But the vivid 
 pen of Tacitus has pictured to us these grim functionaries, 
 and the awful recesses of their blood\- groves, ere their cult 
 was transformed into the harmless nature worship, com- 
 bined with a strong belief in magic, which we shall find it 
 in the biographies of the earl\- missionaries. Describing 
 the conquest of Anglese)- b\- the legions under Suetonius 
 Paulinus in A.i>. 6i — "The Druids," he sa\-s, "were ranged 
 in order, with hands uplifted, invoking the gods, and pour- 
 ing forth terrible imprecations. The novelt)' of the sight 
 struck the Romans with awe and terror ; they stood in 
 stupid amazement, as if their limbs were benumbed, riveted 
 to one spot, a mark for the enem\'. The exhortations of the 
 general by-and-by diffused new vigour throughout the ranks, 
 and the men by mutual reproaches inflamed each other to 
 deeds of valour. Thc\- felt the disgrace of yielding to a 
 troop of women and a band i^f fanatic priests ; the\- advanced 
 
 * Mommsun, "Provinces of the Roui.in Empire," i., \>. 105 (Dickson's 
 translation). 
 
 t Ccesar, " De I?eII. Call." lil.. vi.. c. 14. 
 : //>i\L, vi. 13. 
 
HOSTILITY OF THE ROMANS. 55 
 
 their standards, and rushed to the attack with impetuous 
 fury. The Britons perished in the flames which they 
 themselves had kindled ; the island fell, and a garrison 
 was established to retain it in subjection ; the religious 
 groves, dedicated to superstitious and barbarous rites, were 
 levelled to the ground. In these recesses the natives 
 embrued their altars with the blood of their prisoners, and 
 in the entrails of men explored the will of the gods."* 
 " Thus," remarks Mommsen, " the old vehement Celtic 
 faith, which had given the Romans so much trouble, burst 
 forth once more, for the last time, in a mighty flame." t On 
 another occasion, when the barbarians north of the Forth 
 were preparing to resist the advance of Agricola, the same 
 author speaks of "the solemn rites and sacrifices":;: with 
 which the>- celebrated their league in the cause of freedom, 
 but, unfortunately, does not delineate the picture as in the 
 above graphic fashion. Lucan, his contemporary, in his 
 apostrophe of the Druids, is not more explicit on the sub- 
 ject, but, like Cffisar, adds a little to our knowledge of their 
 creed. " And you, ye Druids, now that the sword was 
 removed, began once more your barbaric rites and weird 
 solemnities. To you only is given knowledge or ignorance 
 (whichever it be) of the gods and the powers of heaven ; 
 your dwelling is in the lone heart of the forest. From you 
 we learn that the bourne of man's ghost is not the sense- 
 less crrave. not the pale realms of the monarch below; in 
 another world his spirit survives still. Death, if your 
 lore be true, is but the passage to enduring life." § 
 
 The gods whom the Druid hierarchy worshipped with 
 such ferocious rites, and whose attributes they explained to 
 the youths that flocked to listen to their instructions, were 
 identified by Caisar [! with Mercury, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, 
 and Minerva. Mercury, he adds, as the inventor of the 
 arts, and the patron of trade and intercommunication, 
 counted the largest number of altars, and the popularity of 
 this god is explained by the flourishing state of traffic and 
 manufactures in Gaul.*: Apollo was supplicated as the 
 
 * " Annales," xiv., c. 30. t " Provinces,'" i., p. 180. 
 
 + " Agricola," c. 27. § Matthew Arnold, " Study of Celtic Literature." 
 
 II "DeBell. Gall.," vi. 17. 
 
 H Mommsen, "History of Rome," iv., p. 220. 
 
50 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 healer of disease. Minerva was especially the patroness of 
 the handicrafts, while in the groves sacred to Mars they 
 piled a portion of the spoil, in gratitude for success in war. 
 Jupiter, as the Father of Heaven, received a homage which 
 the Aryan race, from the plains of India to the Western 
 Isles, offered to the wonders of the sky. Their Celtic names 
 are still recognisable in the Latin inscriptions on the stone 
 tablets, which have been discovered in Gaul and Britain, 
 and which preserve to us the act of piety of some devout or 
 grateful worshipper. Mercury appears in combination with 
 the word Artaius (Welsh a?-, ploughland), Apollo with 
 Maponas (Welsh viapon, boy). Jupiter was known as 
 Taranucus, the Thunderer (Welsh taran, thunder). Mars 
 as Caturix, the battle king (Irish cath, battle, and rix, 
 king), and as Camulos, to whom Camulodunum, the capital 
 of the Trinobantes, and other places were dedicated, and 
 who is recognisable in an inscription to " Mars Camulus," 
 which has been found along the Roman wall between the 
 Forth and the Clyde. Minerva passed among the Britons 
 under the title of Belisama, once the name of the river 
 Ribble.* The investigations, by philologists like Professor 
 Rhys and M. Gaidos, of these votive inscriptions, found in 
 Britain and France, especially in the latter country, have 
 thus tended to confirm the remark of Tacitus that "in both 
 countries the same religious rites, the same superstitions 
 were obserxcd." These are, however, but a few of the 
 principal deities among the innumerable gods that pla}-ed 
 such a role in the thought of our Celtic forefathers. The 
 lively imagination, the vivacious temperament of the Celt, 
 made him particularly susceptible to the influences of 
 nature. The religious instinct, working in the vein of a 
 li\cly fanc\', peopled the land with its aerial creations — the 
 genii to whom the Romans paid homage in every district, 
 in which they formed a station. They saw a divine virtue 
 in the healing properties of springs and herbs, they felt the 
 presence of a god in the brooding mists, the gloomy 
 thickets, the wildfire that flitted across the sky, the 
 mysterious moonbeams, and the glorious sunrays, the will 
 
 * This subject haslicen examineii by I'rof. Rhys in his " Ilibberi Lectures." 
 See especially lect. i. 
 
NATURE AND THE CELTIC FANCY. 57 
 
 o' the wisp of the swamps, the mountains, and the plains ; 
 the ever-animated flow of the stream* or the sullen stillness 
 of the pools, the life-giving breath of spring, and the florid 
 beauty of summer. Nature was thus one vast pantheon, 
 and if, before the advent of the Roman, his cult was 
 debased by the horrors of human sacrifice, it was not with- 
 out its poetic charm. It is characterised by an intensity 
 that can only find a resting-place in the conception of the 
 manifold and the vast. Its sentiment presses on to the 
 impalpable, the ideal. The forest of trees and the forest 
 of rocks — something Titanic, something weird as in the 
 Ossianic poems — not hewn timber and carved stones — 
 Stonehenge with its pinnacles of boulder suit its aspirations 
 for .something not to be bounded nor expressed.! At a 
 later time many of these realistic fictions, which wove them- 
 selves into the inmost life and thought of our pagan 
 forefathers, became transformed, in the tale of the bard, into 
 the heroes who filled up the blanks of our earlier history. 
 The old gods vanished before the advance of a more 
 spiritual faith, yet they returned to enjoy, in the pages of 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth and the romances of the Middle 
 Ages, a renewed lease of life, only they were no longer 
 gods, but men — mighty heroes and giants, who assist King 
 Arthur in his combats to maintain the national cause 
 against the pagan Saxon, great leaders like the old solar 
 god, Hugh the mighty, or enchanters like Gwydion, who, 
 with the exquisite and magic charm of the Celtic fancy, 
 transformed the flowers of the oak, of the broom, and the 
 meadow sweet, into a woman. It is a strange fact that 
 some of the mythical saints of the early British Church 
 should be resolvable into pagan gods, and their virtues 
 and miraculous doings prove to be those of the banished 
 deities, transformed by the romancing pen of the monki.sh 
 biographer. St Bran, who, from his fabled conversion at 
 Rome in the first century, and his activity on his return to 
 his native land in preaching the doctrine of the Cross, 
 
 * "A blind people," says Gildas, referring to the temples and mouldering 
 idols of his time (si.xth century), "paid divine honour to the mountains, wells, 
 and streams." 
 
 iSee Matthew Arnold, "Study of Celtic Literature," sect. v. 
 
58 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 earned the title of the Blessed, turns out to have been 
 originally a war-god. Another great figure of the religious 
 imagination of our Celtic forefathers, the ocean god, Lir, 
 whom Geoffrey gravely reduced to historic shape as the 
 founder of Leicester in the age of the prophet Amos, 
 survived to become, in one of the most powerful of Shake- 
 spearian dramas, the unfortunate King Lear, the tragic 
 victim of filial ingratitude. Bran was in fact one of his 
 divine progeny, and the Lady Brangwaine, the fairest of his 
 daughters, who plays a role in the romance of Tristram and 
 Iseult, was once worshipped, under the title of Branwen of 
 the Fair Bosom, as the Venus of the North. Her miraculous 
 fountain, in an islet off Anglesey, cured the sorrows of 
 unfortunate lovers. Gwydion, the arch-magician, whose 
 castle was in the milky way, was a member of another 
 group of deities — the children of Don — who inhabited the 
 stars and the constellations. But the outstanding figure in 
 that numerous fanciful hierarch}- of our myth-making 
 ancestors, which has been preserved in the legends and 
 romances of a later time, was that of Nodeus or Xudd — the 
 insular Zeus, to whom his votaries appear to have ascribed 
 the roles of a Neptune and Mars combined. A magnificent 
 temple in his honour was erected by the Romans at 
 Lydne}', on the western bank of the Severn. The mosaic 
 floor contains representations of sea-serpents and fishes, the 
 principal figure in a bronze plaque is crowned with ra}-s like 
 Phoebus, and stands in a chariot drawn by four horses, like 
 the Roman Neptune. The typified winds on either side of 
 it. and the site of the temple near the tidal bed of the 
 Severn, are akso in favour of the deity's connection with the 
 ocean, though the inscriptions still in existence indicate that 
 he also enjoyed the honours of Mars. The worship of such 
 a deity — a kind of marine Mars — forms, as Professor Rhys* 
 has remarked, a curious prelude to the histor}- of that com- 
 posite British people, whose merchantmen and men-of-war 
 now cover all the seas. Stonehenge itself is believed to 
 have been one of the numerous scenes of his worship in this 
 country, and a trace of it lingers even yet in the forest of 
 Brccelieu in Brittany. In seasons of great drought the 
 
 * " Ilibbert Lectures," i. 
 
"A LIVING IMAGE OF PAGANISM." 59 
 
 inhabitants walk in procession to the fountain of Baranton, 
 led by priests and banner-bearers. On arrival, the rector 
 dips the foot of the cross into the water, the rain must come 
 in consequence within a week's time, and the power of the 
 old god is thus acknowledged, though under a different 
 rubric. " Almost all our superstitions," as M. Renan has 
 well remarked, " are the remains of a religion anterior to 
 Christianity, and which Christianity has not been able 
 entirely to root out. If, at the present day, we wished to 
 recover a living image of paganism, v.'e should have to look 
 for it in some village lying forgotten in the depths of some 
 country district, altogether behind the times."* In Catholic 
 countries, where the ritual of the Church, in which many of 
 the ancient customs of the people were thus absorbed, sur- 
 vived the revolutions wrought in Britain and other parts of 
 Northern Europe by the Reformation, a great deal of the 
 pagan cult has been preserved, though modified by Christian 
 ideas. The missionaries of the Cross were usually more 
 lenient with the religious customs of the pagans, than the 
 Romans had been with the grimmer features of the Druid 
 ceremonial, and while their converts transferred their allegi- 
 ance to Christ and the apostles and the martyrs, they still 
 retained many of their old ideas and practices, under a 
 different name perhaps. Even in our country, which sub- 
 stituted for the Catholic ritual a rigid and inartistic service, 
 many elements of a remote paganism remained bound up 
 wuth the thought and customs of the people. These beliefs 
 and practices of a shadowy past, often on the surface but un- 
 meaning superstitions, have lived on with extraordinary 
 tenacity for many centuries, and it would be well, in view 
 of such a fact, if those who are inclined to hold, with 
 unreasoning bigotry, traditional beliefs in religion would 
 pause to inquire into the origin of many a dogma or 
 shibboleth, even though it pass under the title of Christian, 
 and seem a pillar of the Christian s\'stem. The popular 
 belief in witchcraft, which cast its dark shadow over so 
 many innocent lives in mediaeval and even in modern times, 
 was simply a survival from pre-christian ages. I remember 
 hearing of a case in Banffshire less than twenty years ago, 
 
 * " Influence of the Institutions, Thought, and Culture of Rome," p. 32. 
 
6o CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 in which an otherwise shrewd man seriously accused a 
 neighbour of having bewitched his cow, by drawing off the 
 milk, and causing it to flow into a pitcher from the end of 
 his table. The idea that the witches could raise storms by 
 certain spells, that their charms were proof against weapons, 
 that they held their meetings on wild heath or dark 
 mountain top, and could ride through the air or transport 
 themselves into cats, hares, or were-wolves, that they could 
 cause disease by demoniacal powers, and convey thorns, 
 pins, &c., into their victims' bodies — this was essentially a 
 pagan idea and a pagan practice.* The same origin is to 
 be assigned to the sacrifice of a cock for the cure of epilepsy, 
 the leaving of a rag, as an offering, on a bush beside a well, 
 which for ages has had the repute of being able to afford 
 recovery from disease, the refraining from killing fish in 
 some loch or pool, the curtseying to the new moon or the 
 greeting that is offered her by young women in the High- 
 lands from the earthfast stone, in order to discover their 
 future husbands, the fear of the water-kelpie — the aquatic 
 bull or horse whose appearance brings death and calamity, — 
 the worship of fire represented by the bonfires of Hallowe'en, 
 the sacrifice of a bull to some saint such as St Mouri at 
 Applecross, or St Cuthbert at Kirkcudbright. In " Hallow- 
 e'en," with its pawky talc of all the simple artifices to which 
 the Ayrshire rustic resorts, in the endeavour to discover 
 his or her future mate in life. Burns has unconsciously left 
 us a succinct text-book of the ancient paganism of the 
 countryside. 
 
 The question as to the influence of religious belief and 
 ritual on the lives and character of a people is an interest- 
 ing and important one from the standpoint of culture. The 
 religion of our Celtic ancestors of remote pagan times was 
 not merely a system of m\-tholog)- and philosophy, whose 
 mysteries were the exclusive property of the priestly caste 
 and studiously kept from the um"nitiated, being committed 
 to memory, not written down, by the numerous disciples 
 who crowded the sacred groves. That it also exercised a 
 great influence on the people, we may gather from the 
 power of the sacred order. Their word was law, and dis- 
 * See Tylor, " Primitive Culture," p. 13S. 
 
MORAL INFLUENCE OF PRIEST AND CREED. 6 1 
 
 obedience to it was followed b}' a sentence of excommuni- 
 cation more fearful than death itself* They were the 
 arbiters of all public disputes, which in Gaul were submitted 
 to the Druidic assembly held once a year at Chartres. 
 They decided the question of peace or war. They enjoyed 
 the most ample privileges, and were, in fact, the ruling class 
 in the nation. In such circumstances, their doctrines and 
 their rites were not the formal s}'stem that the national 
 religion had become to the philosophers of Greece and 
 Rome. The reverence for the gods, and the submission to 
 the authorit}- of their fierce and fanatic ministers, were 
 intense realities to those whose minds were so impressed b}' 
 the idea of the supernatural that, while impatient of kingh^ 
 control,! they submissively endured the grimmest form of 
 priestly tyranny. Such a religion must, notwithstanding 
 the risk of being a dead mechanical weight, have exercised 
 a certain moral power in the various relations of life. The 
 time has passed when the champion of the Christian faith 
 summarily limited all excellence, on dogmatic grounds, to 
 Christianity, and proscribed every other faith by the name 
 of pagan. Wallace, who spent several years among savage 
 tribes, came to the conclusion that the savage is after all 
 in man}' respects a better man than the Christian, and the 
 same sentiment has been beautifully expressed b}- the poet 
 Saume. The ethic philosophy of the Druids ma}- excite a 
 smile, but in the more civilised communities we find the idea 
 of the family and the existence of marriage. Among the 
 Aryan race the relations of the sexes were not of the 
 degraded kind that prevail among peoples at a low stage of 
 civilisation. In the household the wife was not the mere 
 slave of the husband, but bore a part in the government of 
 the family, and there are not wanting examples in Britain 
 of women wielding the supreme power in the State. :|: 
 Cartismandua or Boudicca would not have held such a 
 position had their sex been the degraded slave of the men. 
 True, Cffisar has recorded a report that the natives of the 
 
 * Cresar, " De Bell. Gall.," vi., c. 13. 
 + IHd., V. 6 ; cf. V. 27. 
 
 X Tacitus, "Agricola," c. xvi. " In Britain there is no rule of distinction 
 to exclude the female line from the throne, or the command of armies." 
 
62 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 interior of the island lived in what we should regard as a 
 state of communal marriage — the state in which the women 
 are the common property of the communitx', and which has 
 been found to be the case in modern times among peoples 
 like the Bushmen of South Africa, the inhabitants of Queen 
 Charlotte Island, and the natives of Australia. While we 
 should not be surprised at such a brutal practice among 
 peoples whose culture is that of the savage, we can hardly 
 believe that the shocking moral laxity, which Caesar had 
 heard prevailed among the inland British tribes, was any- 
 thing more than one of these incredible fictions, that were 
 credited to the little known and much scandalised regions 
 beyond the pale of Roman dominion. " Ten or a dozen 
 men have their wives in common ; brothers with brothers 
 and parents with their sons, but the children are accounted 
 those of the man to whom the woman was first assigned."* 
 This condition of things would not necessarily mark a low 
 state of culture, as appears from the fact that Plato advo- 
 cated a community of wives, chiefly on the patriotic ground 
 that the children would be attached more closely to their 
 countr)-. But if not a pure fiction, the statement may be 
 merely an ignorant, though not wilful, caricature of the 
 patriarchal community in which the sons of one father lived 
 together with their wives and children, in subjection to their 
 paternal head. This custom was not unknown among the 
 Aryan nations in early times, and the clan system in Ire- 
 land and the Highlands remained a late and elaborate 
 survival of this phase of social development. But it looks 
 so like one of those tit-bits in the fabulous stories told by 
 Hecatsus and other Greek romancers, that we are inclined 
 to believe rather that the usually shrewd historian was for 
 once caught napping, especially as he does not in this 
 instance relate what he had observed himself It is at all 
 events quite worthy of a place beside the tales recorded by 
 Strabo (who, however, doubts them), Dion Cassius, Solinus, 
 and even St Jerome, about the la.x relations of the sexes in 
 Ireland, Thule, and the Hebrides, but though the picture of 
 a grass-eating community, who had no idea of marriage, or 
 of a king, who allowed his passions unrestrained scope 
 
 * "De Bell. Gall.," v. 14. 
 
FABLE AND FACT. 63 
 
 among his female subjects, might amuse the languid Greek 
 in quest of novelties, and pass for fact in the learned pages 
 of Blackstone, such tales have not been able to survive the 
 keenness of modern research. The pen of Tacitus has 
 drawn a very different picture of the moral vigour of the 
 opponents of Agricola, and the speech which he puts into 
 the mouth of Galgacus contains not a few favourable com- 
 parisons between the martial, freedom-loving barbarians, 
 and the oppre.ssive and demoralising character of the Roman 
 civilisation. We may assume that, though the speech is the 
 production of the writer, he would not have written one pal- 
 pably out of keeping with the character of the barbarian chief 
 and his followers. And certainly the Caledonian orator, with 
 Tacitus for so^/J/Zcin', has no cause to be ashamed of himself 
 and his people in the presence of the legions of Rome. 
 There is not merely the fierce declamation of the barbarian 
 to whom battle and carnage are a delight; there is the glow 
 of a generous enthusiasm in the cause of freedom, home, 
 and native land, coupled with a courage, a feeling of human 
 rights, a contempt of death, that contrast widely with the 
 moral delinquincies ascribed by the orator to the Romans — 
 their insolent pride, their avarice, their ambition, their 
 brutal tyranny and cruelty. Galgacus does not talk like a 
 man who had no idea of the sacredness of the domestic life, 
 and an historian like Tacitus would not for the sake of 
 mere effective writing have penned an oration, glowing with 
 appreciation of the noblest virtues, without regard in some 
 degree for the fitness of things. 
 
BOOK II 
 
 ROMAN CULTURE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PLASTIC TOUCH OF ROME. 
 
 NO observant Scotsman, with an interest in the 
 antiquarian remains of his country, is unfamiHar 
 with some venerable monument of the presence of 
 the Roman invader in Northern Britain. He may, in the 
 same breath, grow eloquent over the heroism that vindicated 
 his country's independence at Bannockburn, and that per- 
 sistently resisted the renewed attempts to conquer it by the 
 most martial people of antiquity, but he cannot contemplate 
 those numerous traces of imperial grandeur, scattered over 
 the surface of his native land, without a feeling of interest, 
 and even of reverence. They suggest the thought — not 
 without a strong fascination for those who feel a keen 
 sympathy with the great deeds and the great figures of 
 antiquity — that Scotland formed a part of the mightiest 
 empire of ancient, as it does of that of modern times. 
 There is at least this bond of likeness between our present 
 and our past, and the remembrance of it may well quicken 
 our interest in the marvellous power which has so long lain 
 prostrate beneath the vanished centuries, as well as beget 
 a sentiment of wonder at the strange revolutions of human 
 history. To-day we boast that the sun never sets on the 
 Queen's dominions. Our romanised forefathers spoke in a 
 similar strain, for the Romans, too, had their pride of 
 empire, and their poets could sing that " the earth is 
 girdled with a Roman ocean." Although the territories 
 
 E 
 
66 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 that owned the sway of the Roman emperors cannot be 
 compared in extent with the giant vastness of Greater 
 Britain, the boast of the poets was not an empty one. They 
 embraced large possessions in three continents, and from 
 the Euphrates to the Danube, from the north of Africa to 
 the north of Britain, the valour of the Roman legions, and 
 the spirit of Roman institutions, had welded peoples of 
 many tongues and of great diversity of race into one 
 gigantic organism, as the army and the enterprise of Britain 
 has done, on a still grander scale, in every quarter of the 
 modern world. To the far-seeing policy of Gracchus, the 
 Romans owed the idea of opening up in the north-west a 
 field for the activity of Italian merchants and the super- 
 fluous population of Italian cities. The military genius of 
 Caesar succeeded at length in realising the project of the 
 Great Tribune. The same conditions, which have led to the 
 establishment of the British colonies, existed in the Italy of 
 Virgil and Horace as well as in the Athens of Pericles, and, 
 along with the same instinct of conquest, led to the absorp- 
 tion of the verdant and fertile regions of Gaul, whose 
 inhabitants were compelled to surrender their independence 
 before the superlative organisation, the more enterprising 
 spirit of their neighbours south of the Alps. In order to 
 the consolidation of their richly remunerative possessions 
 between the Rhine and the Atlantic, the Roman generals 
 could not leave the adjacent island of Britain out of 
 account, connected as it was by trade and race sympathies 
 with Gaul, and affording a basis for the disturbing influence 
 of deserters and rebels. It is to this policy of expansion 
 towards the north-west, carried out with such iron energy 
 by Cnesar in Gaul, and a succession of distinguished generals 
 in Britain, that we are indebted for the abiding impress 
 of Roman culture, which survixcd the wreck of Roman 
 political organisation in the beginning of the fifth century, 
 and which has left its trace so deej^K' in the life of the 
 western peoples. The advance of the Romans to the forests 
 of Caledonia, leavening in its course the barbarian Celts 
 -with the culture of ItaK", is an e\ent of world-historic 
 importance. If the conquest of Gaul had not been achieved 
 by Ca.'sar, and the northern barbarians, unrestrained by the 
 
THE RELATION OF BRITAIN TO ROME. 6/ 
 
 barrier of the Roman power on the left bank of the Rhine, 
 had poured across that river and over the Alps and the 
 Pyrenees, the Helleno-Latin culture could not have per- 
 petuated itself as it has done in the thought and institutions 
 of the north, and transformed its barbarian life. It would 
 have been to us to-day rather like that of Persia and India, 
 largely external, and would have exercised, comparatively 
 speaking, but a meagre influence on our development.* 
 
 The relation in which Britain stood to the great empire 
 of which it was an integral part, was a very close one. It 
 was not that merely of a conquered province, connected 
 with the seat of power mainly by means of the tax-gatherer, 
 and the foreign trader, whose only interest in the new 
 acquisition was that of gain. That it was so to some extent, 
 and suffered in consequence, is only too truCjf as we shall 
 see. But it was, all the same, a colony in the organic sense, 
 as much permeated by the life that pulsed from the heart 
 of the empire as Australia, or Canada, or Cape Colony are 
 by the spirit and institutions of Britannia at the present 
 time. To its shores came not merely the Roman legions 
 to conquer and enslave its warlike tribes, or the Roman 
 merchant to exchange the more luxurious products of the 
 south for the native minerals, pearls, and furs ; there came 
 also the Roman colonist to settle on its fertile plains and 
 till its soil, to found considerable cities whose inhabitants 
 enjoyed the rights and privileges of Roman citizens, and in 
 which the refinements, the laws, the culture of Italy, 
 flourished as under their softer native sky. The camp, in 
 fact, was frequently but the forerunner of the colon)^ and 
 the eisrantic ruins of some of the Roman cities, such as 
 Caerleon, Chester, and Luguballium (Carlisle), as well as 
 the speedy subjection of the southern portion of the island, 
 tell, with convincing emphasis, of the vigour with which the 
 invaders transformed their remote island acquisition by the 
 civilisation of the south. In the short interval between the 
 second invasion under Claudius, and the desperate attempt 
 of the Britons to throw off the hated alien yoke in the 
 reign of Nero, under the Icenian Queen, Boadicea or 
 
 * See Mommsen, " History of Rome," iv. 287, 2SS (Dickson's translation), 
 t Tacitus, " Agricola,'' c. 19. 
 
6S CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 Boudicca, a considerable number of Roman settlements 
 had been effected, so that the 70,000 victims of native 
 vengeance could be spoken of as " citizens or allies of 
 Rome."* The policy of Trajan with reference to Dacia, 
 whither in the words of Eutropius, " he transferred from 
 the whole Roman world great masses of colonists to till the 
 soil and build cities," was merely an instance of what must 
 have happened in Britain under a Claudius, a Hadrian, an 
 Antoninus, a Severus, a Constantine, or any of the other 
 emperors who evinced a special interest in the most 
 northerly province of the empire. The fact that many of 
 the well-known names of the Roman nobility are found 
 inscribed on the boundary stones of the estates of these 
 Roman colonists! indicates the existence of a numerous 
 class of Roman landowners, whose occupation of the more 
 fertile tracts in which the Roman colonies settled served to 
 bring their British dependants into contact with the culture 
 of Italy. To this organic and moulding connection with 
 the motherland must be added the solidarity with every 
 part of the dominions of the Caesars, which it derived from 
 the presence of bands of settlers, of nearly every nationality 
 embraced within their pale. The Roman army was as 
 heterogeneous in point of race as our own, and the policy 
 of garrisoning the military posts of the empire with soldiers 
 from remote countries, brought to our shores men of almost 
 every clime and language from Lebanon to Mount Atlas. 
 Just as we find companies of British troops settled in Gaul, 
 Spain, Italy, Illyricum, Egypt, Armenia, so the stations 
 along the walls of Hadrian and Antoninus were occupied 
 by detachments of Spaniards, Gauls, Moors, Germans, 
 Thracians, Dacians, &c. I In some cases, indeed, the foreign 
 settlers consisted of the whole population of a district, 
 which was taught to maintain in exile the allegiance, so 
 uncertain in its native haunt. Britain, wc ma\- .sa\-, repro- 
 duced the culture of Ital>-, with the cosmopolitanism of the 
 
 * Tacitus, xiv. 33. 
 
 t This subject has been exhaustively treated l)y Mr Coote. in his " Romans 
 of Britain," an author who, whatever his exaggerations as the apologist of the 
 Roman n%'-i//ie in Britain, is fertile in ingenious arguments. 
 
 t This is indicated by the " Noiitia Imperii," and confirmed by the 
 numerous inscriptions fovmd around the ruins of these great works. 
 
FROM BEN LOMOND TO ^rOU^"T ATLAS. 69 
 
 empire in its widest range. The lowlands of Scotland, as 
 embraced within the province, shared with what is now 
 England in the benefits of this cosmopolitan Roman culture, 
 though less consecutively and less thoroughly, owing to the 
 oft-recurring disturbing influences of the British inroads. 
 
 The Romans were not only a people of action ; they 
 were likewise a people of method. They understood the 
 art of government as well as of war. They organised the 
 various provinces of their vast empire with machine-like 
 precision, and although their healthy development was 
 ultimateh', in the decay of the empire, cramped and 
 withered by the fetters of an effete bureaucracy,* the estab- 
 lishment of a strong and central government, in place of that 
 of the petty and quarrelsome clan chieftain or the success- 
 ful usurper, was at first a highly beneficial revolution, and 
 lent an impulse to the development of the conquered terri- 
 tory. Instead of being harassed by the constant quarrels 
 and feuds of rival tribes, Britain south of the Forth 
 enjoyed for three centuries the benefits of an orderly 
 government, strong in the repression of internal disorder, 
 even to the danger of being despotic in its rigour, and 
 oppressive in its exactions. After the time of Constantine, 
 it formed part of the vast prefecture of the west, extending 
 from Ben Lomond to Mount Atlas. Although the several 
 districts, into which the island was divided for the purposes 
 of civil and military administration, were placed under 
 separate officers, subject to a deputy-governor or vicar, the 
 whole were under the Prefect of Gaul, whose residence 
 was at Treves. The province was thus knitted in the 
 strictest possible political union to the mighty fabric of 
 Roman dominion in the west. Neither its isolation nor its 
 remoteness could, under such a magnetic system, retard its 
 march at equal pace with the rest of the empire ; and this 
 intimate political union, which placed it as it were on the 
 border of Italy itself, and involved it in intimate associa- 
 tion with the various movements of the time, derived all 
 the more practical influence through the elaborate system 
 of communication which prevailed in every part of the 
 empire. With the Roman legion came the Roman engi- 
 * Guizot, " Histoire de la Civilisation en france," i., p. 51. 
 
yO CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 neer, and the natives of a conquered territory had cause 
 to complain, not onl}' of the loss of independence, but of 
 the forced labour, which they were compelled to lend 
 towards the construction of roads and bridges.* Wherever 
 we find the trace of the Roman camp, we may look for the 
 track of the Roman road. From the Forth to the Straits of 
 Dover, and from Boulogne to the Eternal Cit\', the mer- 
 chants, the couriers, the troops, the official functionaries, 
 the tourists, the philosophers from the imperial capital, 
 could find a serviceable road, and c\'en vary their journey 
 by a choice of route. The care of these highways was 
 entrusted to a surveyor or curator viarnin, who enjoyed a 
 high rank, and no expense was spared to keep them in 
 repair, and provide for the wants of travellers. Post 
 horses were kept in readiness at stated intervals, and the 
 roadside inn afforded a welcome lodging, a grateful rest 
 from the fatigue of the journey. Money and a passport 
 were the onl}- requisites for the traveller from end to end of 
 Roman Europe, as they still are in the Europe of to-day. 
 Though slower, and much more toilsome, the means of 
 communication were almost as complete as in our age of 
 rapid railway and steamboat travelling. The life of 
 Hilarion displays the facility with which an indigent hermit 
 of Palestine might traverse Egypt, embark for Sicily, escape 
 to Epirus, and finally settle in the island of C\-prus.t The 
 ea.sy transition of the legions on the Forth or the Tyne to 
 the Danube or the Euphrates, and the rapid journey of 
 Constantinc from Asia to join his imperial father at York, 
 afford additional evidence of the services that could be 
 rendered by these might)' factors in the spread of Roman 
 culture to every part of the Roman world. Even beyond 
 the frontier of the empire, amid the forests and mountains 
 of Caledonia, the pulse of life and events in the mighty 
 city on the Tiber was not imperceptible. The quickly 
 flying rumour of the accession of an emperor was frequently 
 made the occasion of a raid into the Romanised regions 
 south of the Forth. 
 
 • Tacitus, " Agricola," c. 31, wliere the Caleiloni.in chief Galgacus makes 
 it a source of hitter complaint that " our bodies are woiii out in clearing woods 
 and marshes." 
 
 t Gibbon, " Decline and l-'all,'" vi., p. 233 (ed. Milman). 
 
ROMAN COLONISATION. 7I 
 
 The transformation effected by this close contact of a 
 highly civilised people with the barbarians, whom they 
 conquered, resembled in man}' respects that accomplished 
 in Africa, Australia, and America by the colonising nations 
 of modern Europe. There was not the same marvellously 
 quick development of our time, because the same mechanical 
 conditions of rapid progress did not exist then. But the 
 conquered territory showed on all hands the stamp of 
 Roman culture and Roman energy. A system of well- 
 made and carefully maintained highways took the place of 
 the ancient paths in Britain. Bridges spanned the rivers, 
 and harbours were constructed at their outlets. Traces of 
 busy seaports, for instance, have been inferred near the 
 modern Cramond and Cameleon on the Forth, and at 
 Dumbarton on the Clyde. The mining operations * carried 
 on in Northumberland, Wales, and the Midlands show that 
 the Romans valued the mineral wealth of the island, and 
 knew how to turn it to account. Then, as now in our 
 colonial possessions, the land was surveyed and distributed 
 — not always with regard for native rights — and portions 
 of the thick forest were cleared to make way for the plough 
 of the colonist. The arts, the industries, the refinements 
 of a highly civilised life, flourished in cities like York and 
 London, Lincoln and Gloucester, St Albans and Carlisle, 
 with their temples and basilicas, baths and public monu- 
 ments, aqueducts and sewage works, busy market-places 
 and elegant suburbs.! In the country the landowner, who 
 filled his coffers with the fruit of slave labour, adorned his 
 villa with all the elegance of Italy. The large proportions 
 of many of these in the fertile districts of the south, their 
 marble halls, tesselated floors, tasteful frescos, classic 
 statuary, graceful potter)^ extensive lawns and gardens, 
 might have rivalled the noble mansions of the wealthy 
 and aristocratic classes of our own time. As early as the 
 age of xAgricolaJ a great impulse was given to the erec- 
 
 * "Britain," says Tacitus, "contains, to reward the conqueror, mines of 
 gold and silver, and other metals " (" Agricola," c. 12). 
 
 t Gildas ('• Hist.," sect. 3) describes in a strain of admiration the twenty- 
 eight embattled and embellished cities of Britain. Cf. Breda, " Ecc. Hist.," i., 
 c. II. 
 
 X Tacitus, "Agricola," c. 21. 
 
72 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 tion of magnificent buildings, by the policy of this wise 
 governor of weaning the natives to the refinements of 
 Roman civilisation by the building of temples, basilicas, 
 villas, baths, and porticos. 
 
 In the north, where the remains of the Roman occupa- 
 tion are largely of a military character, colonisation was 
 neither so highly luxurious, nor on so extensive a scale as 
 in the thickly populated south, where " the painful and 
 dangerous transition from independence to foreign rule" 
 was comparatively rapid. The portion of Scotland which 
 came under the direct influence of the Romans — the Valen- 
 tia of later emperors — was essentially a frontier territory. 
 The resolute and systematic attempt of Agricola had prac- 
 tically resulted in quelling the resistance of the fierce High- 
 landers, but the recall of the conqueror afforded them time 
 to recover from the crushing defeat inflicted on them at 
 Mons Grampius ; and singular though it appear, consider- 
 ing the superiority and resources of the Roman armies, 
 they subsequently remained unsubdued and defiant be- 
 hind their rugged mountains. The Roman frontier never 
 advanced beyond the chain of forts erected by Agricola 
 between the Forth and the Cl}'de. The fact that Hadrian 
 found it necessary to construct a second strong line of 
 defence, consisting of the stone wall and earthen rampart,* 
 whose track may still be followed over the hilly region 
 between the Tyne and the Solwaj' is an indication that the 
 campaigns of Agricola in Scotland, so graphically described 
 by his son-in-law Tacitus, had been without permanent 
 effect in the subjugation of its warlike and independent 
 spirited tribes. Even after Lollius Urbicus t had recovered 
 the abandoned tcrritor}', in the reign of .Antoninus Pius, 
 and secured it by the erection of an earthen wall,;): with 
 
 * See Collingwood Bruce, " The Roman W.ill."' 
 
 + This inform.ition we owe to Capiiolimis, and it is confirmed by the 
 discovery of a stone ]:)laced by the 2nd legion Augusta. 
 
 :!: Graham's Dyl<e, as it is called, extended from Bo'ness on the Forth 
 to West Kil]iatrick on the Clyde, and consisted of a fosse, forty feet wide 
 and twenty deep, and a rampart of earth and stones twenty feet high, it is 
 supposed, and surmounted by a parapet, and Hanked by a road. It is supposed 
 to have been strengthened by nineteen forts, with intervening watch towers. 
 Recent investigation has shown that it also possessed stances of sod at regu- 
 lar distances, on which the Onager, a projectile machine, was placed. 
 
RAIDS OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES. 73 
 
 watch towers and strongly occupied stations at intervals 
 along the site of the former forts, the southern line of 
 defence continued to be strongly garrisoned as a base of 
 support to the troops that guarded the advanced posts in 
 the north. We thus find in Caledonia the same condition 
 of things that prevailed on the frontier of the empire from 
 the mouth of the Rhine to the Black Sea. But while wc 
 feel no surprise at the maintenance of large bodies of 
 troops, and the construction of fortifications, like the 
 Devil's Wall, from the Danube to the Rhine, where the 
 emperors had to defend their borders against the teeming 
 hordes of the north, the erection of these huge defensive 
 works, in the northern half of a small island, is a striking 
 testimony to the power of resistance, which a brave and 
 hardy people may offer to the disciplined armies and vast 
 resources of a mighty empire. In the military history of 
 the last two centuries of Roman domination, composed so 
 largely of the struggles that continually harassed the fron- 
 tiers, the name of Caledonia occupies no inconspicuous 
 place. The movements of these restless tribes were a 
 constant cause of anxiety to the insular commanders, and 
 even to the distant emperors. From their mountain and forest 
 fastnesses they swept down at some favourable moment, 
 breaking through the northern wall, even threatening at 
 times the highly civilised districts of the south, and only 
 abandoning the work of pillage and carnage when com- 
 pelled to retire before the energetic advance of a Severus, 
 a Constantinus, a Theodosius, or at the persuasion of 
 Roman gold. That their subjugation was left in abeyance, 
 not merely because of the inattractiveness of their terri- 
 tory, but because of the valour of the inhabitants, and the 
 difficulty of occupying it, is proved by the laborious, but 
 unsuccessful attempts of Urbicus and Severus. In the 
 decay of the Roman power their inroads at length, like 
 those of the barbarian hosts that poured with irresistible 
 force across the Rhine and the Alps, swept away the 
 crumbling fabric of an effete civilisation. 
 
 Such a condition of things must have materially hin- 
 dered the development of Roman culture in Northern 
 Britain. Scenes of devastation and bloodshed, like those 
 
74 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 which have so often been witnessed on the frontiers of 
 our African and American colonies, marked the track of 
 the plundering Pict The hoards of Roman coins and 
 implements, which have been discovered on sites occupied 
 by colonial veterans, may be regarded as memorials of the 
 hasty flight of some unfortunate colonist, who adopted this 
 expedient for saving his property. The sense of securit)* is 
 indispensable to the thorough development of a new coun- 
 try, and even the huge defensive works of Hadrian and 
 Lollius were not always a guarantee of immunity from 
 invasion and slaughter. Nevertheless, though the evidences 
 of a settled industry are naturally, under such conditions, 
 more scanty than farther south, the plastic touch of Rome 
 is still discernible here after the obliterations and re\-olu- 
 tions of the centuries. Ascending the grassy slopes of the 
 Pentland Hills, the e)-e gazing northwards and westwards, 
 is delighted by the varied and wide prospect over fertile 
 plain and wooded hill, over the blue-e\'ed Firth, the spire 
 of many a village church, and the Castle and monuments 
 of Scotia's capital ; while far on the horizon tower the 
 rugged bens, and hovers the black smoke that tells of 
 modern industry. Fifteen hundred }-cars ago, the natural 
 features of the scene would have been much the same, onl\' 
 less of verdure, and more of shaggy forest ; but in place of 
 the castle-crowned cit\' and the flame and smoke of the 
 black country westwards, hoary Time would have pointed 
 to the Roman station and the villa of the Roman colonist. 
 It is on the line of this charming prospect — the site of the 
 wall of Antoninus — that the principal traces of the Roman 
 in Scotland disclose themselves. From Inveresk in the 
 east to Kilpatrick in the west, the country is a veritable 
 treasure-trove of Roman remains. To begin with, the 
 extensive foundations of buildings excavated at Inveresk 
 revealed the fact that some at least of the houses of this 
 ancient colonial settlement were heated by h}'pocausts or 
 underground furnaces. If, as Stuart* thinks, the)' formed 
 the heating apparatus of the public baths, they furnish a 
 suggestive glimpse into the refined habits of the polished 
 society which, attracted by the beaut}' of the bay, built 
 
 * " Caletlonia Romana." 
 
TREASURE-TROVE OF ROMAN REMAINS. 75 
 
 their houses on its shores. A number of gold coins, frag- 
 ments of Samian ware, an altar to Apollo Granicus, and a 
 stamp, found on a heap of Roman debris at Tranent, with 
 which a certain physician, Lucius Vallatinus, marked his 
 medicines, afford a few stray hints in the same direction. 
 Edinbursfh is not behind its now so much humbler environs 
 in its claim to the honour of having been a Roman settle- 
 ment, as we should expect from its admirable position from 
 a military point of view The fact was long perpetuated 
 in a very conspicuous fashion. " Until very recently," says 
 Burton,* "a stranger sauntering down the High Street might 
 have observed with curiosity, built into the face of one of 
 the old houses there, two heads, male and female, sculp- 
 tured in medallion of rather high relief. They are very 
 fine works of art, and they have an air that at once stamps 
 them as classic, without leaving room for doubt." A mile 
 or two to the west, on the eastern highway that kept open 
 communication with the south, the supposed site of the 
 ancient Alaterva, with its harbour at the mouth of the 
 Almond, has yielded several memorials of the Roman cult 
 in the shape of altars to the Dea? Matres, to Jupiter, and 
 to an unnamed deity, who, to judge from the figure, might 
 have been Neptune. In addition to coins, bearing the 
 names of many of the emperors, steelyards, and fibulae, &c., 
 another relic of the art of ^sculapius — a lancet resembling 
 one found in a surgeon's house at Pompeii — vividly recalls 
 the bond of union between the Greater Italy and the parent 
 land these many centuries ago. Whether standing by the 
 shore of the Firth of Forth or the Bay of Naples, we feel, 
 when we transpose ourselves beyond the barriers of time 
 and change, that we are on kindred soil, with an identity of 
 culture, though under widely contrasting skies, and amid 
 strangely unlike scenes. 
 
 Westwards, along the wall, the remains of a mighty 
 antiquity present themselves thick and fast. The inscribed 
 stones set up in honour of Antoninus Pius by detachments 
 of the 2nd, 6th, and 20th legions, and by the auxiliary 
 troops from many lands attached to them, and recording the 
 length constructed by each, invest the ruins of this venerable 
 * " History of Scotland," i. 50. 
 
•J^ CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 monument of military engineering with a singularly realistic 
 interest. \Vc may wander from station to station, mark- 
 ing the divisions where each party of the exiled veterans 
 toiled, and reproducing in fancy the animated though long 
 vanished scene. But it was not one of exclusively military 
 activity. Relics of an advanced and varied culture, of which 
 it was the forerunner, are found associated with the wall. It 
 is highly probable that the forts which crowned many of the 
 eminences in its course, such as at Kirkintilloch and Castle- 
 hill, were meant to guard the houses and fields of the 
 veterans, who had earned grants of land in the neighbour- 
 hood by their long exile on the frontier, as well as serve as 
 a barrier against the encroaching Picts. It is inconceivable 
 that the Romans should have held this advanced line of 
 defence for near]}- three centuries, without planting 
 colonies and cultivating the soil in the lowlands. The 
 foundations of extensive buildings on the site of the fort at 
 Castlecary, including the remains of a suduarium or hot 
 bath, an altar to Fortune, human bones, pieces of pottery, 
 &c., and a large quantity of wheat in a neighbouring cave, 
 quite hard and black, and mingled with pieces of charred 
 wood, suggest the thought that some of the villages and 
 towns in that modern region of canals, railways, and coal- 
 pits, may have grown out of the ancient Roman colonial 
 settlements. Mingled with the debris of these forts, altars, 
 tombstones, and sculptured slabs have been found, testify- 
 ing to the piety, the domestic affection, and the taste for 
 art which then found expression in the camps on the remote 
 northern limit of the empire. The art is comparatively 
 rude, considered as Roman workmanship, but two of the 
 pieces of sculpture are worthy of mention from the local 
 character which the artist has impressed on them. They 
 represent a Roman soldier on horseback dashing over a 
 group of naked Caledonians in chains, or lying helpless on the 
 ground. Another object, a tazza cut out of white alabaster, 
 of very delicate form, like the beautiful and richly decorated 
 bronze flagon, exquisite in form and beauty of ornamenta- 
 tion, which .so long served as a stepping-stone in a burn at 
 Lcsmahagow, shows that the refined products of Italy found 
 their way to these remote northern settlements. The mag- 
 
"THE TALE OF OTHER TIMES." JJ 
 
 nificcnt collection of Italian jewellery, pottery, and statuary, 
 which forms one of the most valuable features of the Inter- 
 national Exhibition held this year (1890) in our cit}', is 
 admirably fitted to impress the spectator with the taste and 
 artistic refinement of that classic land, compared with the 
 colder, duller sense of the north. But for centuries there 
 were hidden in our soil, amid the broken gods and altars, 
 and the crumbling masonry of Roman fort or villa, objects 
 as exquisitely beautiful and of similar mould, which came 
 to our shores from the same southern clime, in the wake of 
 the conquering legions. Nor are they confined to the dis- 
 trict along the wall. Here and there a stray object has 
 survived the destruction, that at the fall of the empire over- 
 took so largely the Roman settlements at the hands of the 
 Pictish plunderers, to tell "the tale of other times." Wherever 
 a station commanded some important point on the eastern 
 and western highways, which connected the south with the 
 north of the province, such as at Trimontium (Eildons) and 
 Bremenium (High Rochester) on the former, and Castle- 
 dykes, near Carstairs, and Birrens, near Middleby, on the 
 latter, the traces of Roman art and energy are not even yet 
 quite worn away; while in following the southern boundary 
 of the ancient Valentia,* the observant traveller is still able 
 to form some idea of the splendour and refinement which 
 must have flourished under the protection of the wall of 
 Hadrian. At nearly every station we come on the ruins of 
 large dwellings, temples, broken columns, and statues of 
 excellent workmanship. What had become but piles of 
 stone have been found to be the debris of villas and baths, 
 containing jewellery, pottery, and other relics of wealth and 
 magnificence. Of all these memorials of a past grandeur 
 amid the Northumberland hills, the ruins of Housesteads, 
 the ancient Borcovicus,t are the most impressive. The 
 
 * The district between the walls was made by the victorious general, Theo- 
 dosius, in 368, one of the five subdivisions of the British province, and named in 
 honour of his imperial master Valentinian I. Technically, Britain was not a 
 province, but a diocese, consisting of five provinces under a vice-prefect or 
 vicar. Skene, however, thinks that Wales was meant, as the assertion that it 
 was between the walls is only supported by the authority of the spurious 
 Richard of Cirencester (" Celtic Scotland," i., p. 102). 
 
 + Called " The Pompeii of Britain" ; see Bruce, " Roman Wall," p. 214. 
 
78 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 broken pillars and altars show the splendour of its temples 
 and public buildings. The statues which once adorned them 
 are executed by a skilful hand, while the spirited and 
 characteristic one of Victory, standing with outstretched 
 wings on a globe, vividly reminds of the ideal of conquest 
 and power, which inspired the Roman to brave the discom- 
 forts of these uncongenial northern regions. 
 
 As a Roman possession, Britain shared in the benefits 
 of the carefully regulated system of education prevailing 
 throughout the empire. The policy of Agricola, in found- 
 ing schools as the best means of spreading Roman ideas 
 among the conquered population of the island, was in keep- 
 ing with the interest displayed, by the more enlightened 
 and humane of the emperors, in the education of the youth 
 not only of Italy, but of the provinces. Cc'Esar, Hadrian, 
 Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, distinguished themselves 
 b}' liberally endowing chairs from the imperial treasury, or 
 granting their occupants immunity from public burdens, 
 such as military service or municipal duties. The Theo- 
 dosian Codex* has preserved the enactments by which the 
 later emperors sought to carry out the wise spirit of the 
 nobler among their predecessors. In every town there was 
 a grammar school, and flourishing seats of learning in all 
 the more important cities. The universities of Bordeaux 
 and Autun in Gaul competed with those of Rome and 
 Athens. The fame of .some distinguished teacher, such as 
 the poet Ausonius, whom Valentinian called from Bordeaux 
 to be tutor to his son Gratian, or Epictetus at Nicopolis, 
 had the same magnetic effect upon the knowledge-thirsty 
 youth of many lands that it still exercises in our modern 
 world. In these pagan .schools some of the great Christian 
 fathers had acquired a portion of the erudition or the 
 dialectic skill which afterwards helped to make them 
 famous. Jerome and Augustine listened to the gram- 
 marians and philosophers of the imperial cit\'. Basil and 
 Gregory Nazianus were fellow-students at Athens, while in 
 the tradition of St Ninian's journey to Rome, preserved by 
 Baida, we have a creditable instance of a North British 
 youth seeking, towards the end of the fourth centurx-, in 
 
 * "Cod. Theod.," lili. xiii., til. iii. ; xiii., til. v. ; .\iv., tit. i. (Godfroi). 
 
GREEK CULTURE IN BRITAIN. 79 
 
 the capital of Western Christendom, that mingled increase 
 of knowledge and devotional fervour, which his native land 
 denied him. " Throughout the whole world," says Augus- 
 tine, " the schools of the Rhetoricians are alive with the din 
 of crowds of students."* Some of them begged their bread 
 like the Bettelstudcnten of medieval times, or were forced, 
 like many a Scotch lad of to-day, to cultivate learning on a 
 little oatmeal, or went simply because it was the fashion, as 
 many a thoughtless scion of our aristocratic families does. 
 " The young sybarites of Rome or Athens complained 
 bitterly that at Nicopolis, where they had gone to listen to 
 Epictetus, lodgings were bad, and the baths were bad, 
 and the gymnasium was bad, and society hardly existed."! 
 The schools of the West were largely under the influence 
 of Greek culture — the imperishable supremacy- which 
 remained to that versatile people, in place of the political 
 domination which Rome usurped. The poetry, the 
 rhetoric, the philosophy of Greece asserted themselves in 
 every quarter of the Roman empire. The political and 
 legal system of the latter opened up a path for the intel- 
 lectual inspiration of the former. The education of our 
 higher schools and universities is indeed to a great extent 
 the continuation of what it was in Roman Britain fifteen 
 centuries ago. " We study literature rather than nature 
 because the Greeks did so, and because when the Romans 
 and the Roman provincials resolved to educate their sons 
 they emplo}'ed Greek teachers and followed in Greek paths. 
 Greek education has been almost as permanent as Chris- 
 tianity itself, and for similar reasons. It passed from 
 Greece into Africa and the West. It had an especial hold 
 first on the Roman and then upon the Celtic and Teutonic 
 populations of Gaul." J Though the direct influence of 
 this cosmopolitan culture came to our shores from Gaul, 
 where, especially in the Greek colonies of Provence, its 
 power had long asserted itself, so that in Hadrian's time 
 Britain could be described as " conquered by the Gallic 
 
 * " De Utilitate Credendi," vol. viii. , 76 (ed. Migne). 
 t Hatch, " Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages in the Christian Church," 
 p. 36. 
 
 + Hatch, ibid., pp. 28, 43. 
 
8o CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 schoolmaster,"* Greek scholars also came. Plutarch met 
 at Delphi and conversed with one of them, who was return- 
 ing from Britain to his native city of Tarsus. But the 
 armies and the travelling public, as well as the scholars of 
 Gaul and Greece, were likewise important factors in the 
 diffusion of .literary culture in the island province. As early 
 as the time of Caesar there was a brisk publishing business 
 carried on at Rome and other great cities of the empire. 
 Rome had its Paternoster Row, where a lucrative trade in 
 books flourished and men of letters met for literary gossip. 
 Among the preparations for a long journey to some of the 
 provinces, the packing of a small travelling library was not 
 forgotten, and by these, among other means, the latest novels, 
 speeches, and treatises found access to remote districts, and 
 exercised their quiet influence, where the almost ubiquitous 
 philosopher, of whose troubles, when on the road, Lucian has 
 left an amusing picture, might not turn up. In the camp, 
 as in the grove and the forum, the literature of Ital>- and 
 Greece counted its admirers, and the veteran who faced the 
 biting north wind on the shores of the Clyde and the Forth 
 doubtless often comforted himself with the romances and the 
 dramas, the satires and lyrics, warm with the breath of fondly- 
 cherished scenes far away, as the British soldier does on the 
 frontier of India, or in the heart of Africa. The Caledonian 
 chief, labouring, like Galgacus, to inspire his followers with 
 contempt of the legions, might doubtless have found the 
 same argument at hand as the Parthian vizier, who pointed 
 out to the citizens of Seleucia the romances found in the 
 camp of Crassus, and asked them whether they still regarded 
 the readers of such books as formidable opponents. 
 
 The question as to the material and social condition of 
 the province during the three and a half centuries of Roman 
 occupation is an important one, from the point of view of 
 culture. Did the colonisation, whose relics meet us even 
 yet on every hand, make for progress and prosperit\-? 
 Was the Roman occupation, in which a portion of Scotland 
 shared, fruitful of good results both to the foreign settlers 
 
 * Juvenal ami .M.-Mlial sing of the knowledge of Ciieek and Roman litera- 
 ture possessed by Britain, and even Thule was spoken of as having a professor 
 for itself. 
 
SOCIAL CONDITION UNDER ROME. 8l 
 
 who spread themselves over the more fertile tracts, and the 
 natives who became the subjects of the empire ? That 
 commerce, agriculture, and industry flourished on an exten- 
 sive scale, we may conclude from the ruins of the cities and 
 highways, the villas and harbours, the mines and factories, 
 which have survived to our da}-, as well as from the notices 
 of contemporary writers. While Appian,* in the second 
 century, speaks of Britain as a profitless encumbrance to 
 the empire, Eummenius waxes eloquent, in the third, in 
 praise of its fruitful orchards and fertile pastures, its 
 mineral wealth, and numerous harbours. Its value as a 
 granary of the empire seems almost to have equalled that 
 of Egypt. Its stores of corn afforded food to the armies 
 engaged in reducing the Germans to submission, or 
 repelling their inroads over the Gaulish border. The large 
 flotilla of six hundred barks (Zosimus calls it eight hundred), 
 which Julian caused to be constructed in the Ardennes and 
 sent down the Rhine to Britain, whence it returned laden 
 with corn, lends plausibility to the rhetoric of the panegyrist. 
 Unfortunate!)', however, a less flattering note must be 
 mingled with his lavish praises. The development of the 
 province was often hindered, especially during the last half- 
 century of Roman domination, by political disturbances- 
 The oft-recurring troubles in which the seat of government 
 was plunged produced their baneful effects here. The 
 struggle for the imperial throne, which so often disorganised 
 and demoralised Italy, was felt in all its disastrous effects 
 throughout the whole empire. It gave scope in Britain to 
 the usurpations of ambitious generals, to the turbulence of 
 a discontented soldiery, and to the inroads of the northern 
 barbarians, with whom bands of Saxon pirates and Irish 
 marauders subsequently allied themselves. Thus it was not 
 seldom overwhelmed with all the miseries of weak, unsettled 
 government, and the)' were felt with double acuteness as 
 the empire hastened to its doom in the latter half of the 
 fourth centur)^ " The calamities which," in the expressive 
 language of Gibbon,-f- " the provincials continued to 
 experience from foreign war and domestic tyranny were 
 
 * "Alex. Hist. Rom. Praef.." 5. Cf. Eummenius, "Pan. Const.," cc. 9-19. 
 t " Decline and Fall," iv. 281. 
 
 F 
 
82 CULTURE IN P:ARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 aggravated by the feeble and corrupt administration of the 
 eunuchs of Constantius, and the transient reHef which they 
 might obtain from the virtues of JuHan was soon lost by the 
 absence and death of their benefactor. The sums of gold 
 and silver which had been painfully collected, or liberally 
 transmitted for the payment of the troops were intercepted 
 by the avarice of the commanders ; discharges, or at least 
 exemptions from the military service, were publicly sold ; 
 the distress of the soldiers who were injurious!}' deprived 
 of their scanty subsistence provoked them to frequent 
 desertions ; the nerves of discipline were relaxed, and the 
 highways were infested with robbers. The oppression of 
 the good, and the impunity of the \\-icked, equally con- 
 tributed to diffuse through the island a spirit of discontent 
 and revolt, and every ambitious subject, ever}' desperate 
 exile, might entertain a reasonable hope of sub\-erting the 
 weak and distracted government of Britain." The spirit of 
 corruption in the army, so ominous for the stabilit}' and 
 prosperity of a countr\-, spread through the whole official 
 class, and extortion quickened the deca}- b}' which they 
 were accused of ruining a province.* But if the lot of the 
 Roman citizen was harassed by the misgovernment that 
 heralded the closing scenes of a might}- empire, the hard- 
 ships which the native Britons were called on to endure 
 were still more galling. The terrible indictment against 
 the insatiable greed and relentless t}'rann}' of the Romans 
 which Tacitus puts into the mouth of the Caledonian chief, 
 who waxes indignant over the oppression, the arrogance, 
 the slavery, with which thc}' turned their conquests to 
 advantage, is probabl}' overdrawn, in order to cast its fierce 
 light on the hated regime of Domitian. But the selfish 
 principle of regarding a colony as a mere source of gain to 
 the conquerors wrought calamity to the Britons, who 
 were plundered of thc richest of their land.s on the 
 slimmest pretexts, as in America and Africa in modern 
 times by the Spaniards and the Dutch, and made to act the 
 part of hewers of wood and drawers of water to the foreign 
 
 * The alacrity with which the jirovincials bundled off thc official class on the 
 withdrawal of the lej^ions in 410 (Zosimus, lib. vi. 376, 3S3) shows how 
 thoroughly it had earned their detestation. 
 
INDIRECT INFLUENCE ON NORTHERN TRIBES. 83 
 
 lords of the soil. There were doubtless tribes that enjoyed 
 a semi-freedom * and the apparent disuse of the Latin 
 language, with the departure of the legions, argues that the 
 mass of the Celtic aborigines had not been Romanised to this 
 extent. But we ma)- rightly suppose that the Roman land- 
 owner would not respect native rights when it conduced to 
 his advantage to infringe them, any more than the Dutch 
 Boer of the Cape did those of the Hottentot or the Bushman. 
 
 The inevitable tendency of this selfish and oppressive 
 government was to w^eaken the strength of the population, 
 whether bond or free, Celtic or Roman. Its effects dis- 
 covered themselves in the helplessness of the Britons, on 
 the departure of the legions, to maintain a successful 
 defence against the invading hordes from the north and east. 
 The Roman occupation, whatever its indirect advantages 
 for the western w^orld, did not develop in Britain, and 
 leaven, by the better elements of Roman civilisation, a 
 strong national life capable of perpetuity, and of absorbing 
 and overcoming by its superior qualities the barbarism by 
 which it was assailed. It did not tend to foster that strength 
 of resource, that consciousness of power, which has marked 
 the separation of the modern colony from the mother 
 countr}% and which it is the glory of British colonisation 
 to beget. The feeling of patriotism, with its exalting 
 tendencies, could not exist in such an atmosphere — the 
 desire for vengeance, the instinct of self-preservation alone 
 remained as incentives to action, and while the former might 
 rouse them to expel the Roman officials, how little the latter 
 availed against the "war smiths" from the banks of the Elbe, 
 the dominant race of Britain to-day is convincing evidence. 
 
 An indirect influence of the Roman occupation is 
 traceable among the free and martial tribes, who, with their 
 independence, preserved the bold spirit which had been 
 sapped among their kindred farther south. The Roman 
 camp and the Roman road have left their marks beyond 
 the wall of Antoninus, recalling the campaigns of Agricola, 
 Lollius Urbicus, and Severus, while the faint traces of 
 Roman influence reveals itself, as we have seen, in the 
 remains of the purely Celtic culture of the Iron Age. 
 
 * Skene, " Celtic Scotland," i., pp. 120, 121. 
 
84 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 Skene ascribes to this indirect influence, which a highly 
 civilised people, in close proximit)' to a barbarian one, exer- 
 cises, the union created among the various tribes and the 
 consequent advance in social organisation. M. Guizot has 
 pictured in luminous language the fascination which a 
 conquering people like the Romans perforce wielded on 
 the ruder hordes of contiguous lands. " Les monuments 
 de I'activite romaine, ces cites, ces routes, ces aqueducs, ces 
 arenes, toute cette societe si reguliere, si prevo}-ante, si 
 variee dans sa fixite, c'etait la le sujet de leur etonnement, 
 de leur admiration. Vainqueurs, ils se sentaient infcrieurs 
 aux vaincus; le Barbare pouvait mepriscr individuellement 
 le Remain, mais le mondc romain dans son ensemble lui 
 apparaissait comme quelque chose de superieur, et tous les 
 grands hommes de I'age de la conquete, les Alaric, les 
 Ataulphe, les Theodoric, et taut d'autres en detruisant et 
 foulant aux pieds la societe romaine faisaient tous leurs 
 efforts pour I'imiter."* In the case of the conquering Teuton, 
 however, the fact of possession afforded them leisure and 
 begat the taste necessar}- for their enthusiastic appreciation 
 of the wonders of a broken empire. But the bitter and long- 
 continued hostility of the Caledonian towards his highly 
 cultured neighbour must have made this influence compara- 
 tivel}- superficial. He would not be slow, doubtless, to prize 
 the boot}' which he managed to secure during his marauding 
 expeditions, whilst not undergoing an}- material revolution in 
 his habits. An example of what might have taken place, in 
 such circumstances, may be seen in the attitude towards 
 British civilisation adopted by those natives of South Africa 
 who, till lately, were allowed to preserve a semi-independent 
 existence. A soldier's cap or coat, or some military ornament, 
 is a coveted object, and is jauntil}' paraded b\' the happ\- Zulu 
 before his less favoured fellows, but the habits of barbarian 
 life are too deeply engrained to be so easily exchanged for 
 those of a higher luiropean civilisation. So, probabl)-, among 
 the Picts ; the mere trappings of Roman civilisation ma\' have 
 been eagerly adopted, its higher characteristics hardl\- at all.f 
 
 * " Ilisloire <le la Civilisation cii France," i. 311. 
 
 tBreda ("Hist. Eccles." i. Il) asserts that they had a rii^ht of dominion 
 over the farther parts of Britain, as also over the islands that are beyond it. 
 
THE MINGLING OF RELIGIONS." 85 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BROKEN GODS AND CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 THE relics of the Roman culture in Northern Britain 
 which have survived most numerously, next to the 
 works of a military character, are the emblems of 
 religion. A striking feature about them is their variety. 
 Among the broken statues which the plough or the spade 
 has rescued from what was once Roman soil, we find the 
 cfods of ancient Rome in harmonious association with the 
 insular deities, as well as with those from nearly every 
 quarter of the empire. While the Romans impressed their 
 political power and their institutions on a conquered people 
 with a tyranny that broke everything that resisted it, they 
 showed themselves remarkably tolerant in the case of 
 religion. The growth of the empire, and the commingling 
 at Rome of a vast population, drawn from its many 
 provinces, speedily broke down the jealous exclusiveness 
 with which the earlier Roman censors guarded the purity of 
 the national cult and the national manners. " Everywhere 
 the mingling of religions was constantly on the increase 
 with the mingling of nations."* It begat the tolerant spirit 
 which has left its traces in the most remote provinces, and 
 which contrasts with the narrow spirit of the Christian 
 states that rose on the ruins of the imperial dominion. 
 Unlike these, the Roman emperors before the reign of 
 Constantine did not formulate and propagate a creed. 
 There was a State religion, it is true, and its rites were 
 intimately associated with political life, but the faith that 
 once invested its altars with a commanding influence had 
 lost much of its ancient charm, and while the educated 
 classes took part in its ceremonies from merely political 
 motives — as a concession to popular requirements, and as a 
 matter of duty to the State — they openly avowed their con- 
 * Mommsen, " History of Rome," iv. 437. 
 
S6 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 tempt for the traditional gods, and some of the philosophers 
 have left the record of it in their writings. The gods had 
 lost their authority over the conscience, if not altogether over 
 the imagination. A religion which had thus lost its pristine 
 power could not be an aggressive missionary religion. It 
 was not fitted either to displace the deities of the newly 
 conquered territories, or to refuse to enter into fellowship 
 with them. Religious dogma in fact — that fertile source of 
 division and persecution — did not exist among the Romans. 
 Their religion was more an affair of ceremony than of creed 
 — "the art," as it has been well said, " of discovering the 
 designs of the gods, and of influencing them by a variety 
 of rites."* Even in such a case the spirit of intolerance 
 might have been excited by a narrow-minded interpretation 
 of the divine will against the rivalry of strange deities, but 
 except when popular superstition discovered, in the aversion 
 of the Christians to share the worship of Christ with that of 
 the pagan hierarchy, the cause of some calamity, the liberty 
 of no one was curtailed by the elastic spirit of the 
 times. In contrast to the inquisition of Greek paganism 
 and mediaival Christianity, the miost thorough-going liberty 
 of opinion was accorded to the philosopher and public 
 teacher, however heretical their reasonings might be. 
 When Vespasian banished the Stoics, it was not because of 
 their contempt for the gods, but because of their meddling 
 in State affairs ; and the persecution of the Christians, 
 which even so wise an emperor as Marcus /\urelius was 
 guilt}- of, or the repression of the Druid ceremonies, was 
 largely a political measure. Although the Delphic oracle 
 had asserted that the best religion was that of a man's own 
 country, good was found in all, and side by side with the 
 ancient gods, stood the altars of the deities of almost every 
 people of the civili.sed world. Never perhaps was the 
 famous dictum of the great Frederick, to let ever}- man 
 choose his own road to heaven, so thoroughl}- exemplified 
 as by the latitudinarian spirit of the age of which the 
 singular medley of deities, fcAind among the Roman remains 
 in Scotland, is a striking memorial. 
 
 It would, however, be a mistake to conclude from the 
 * Pressense, " Ilistoire des Trois Premiers Siecles," i., p. 192. 
 
PIETY OF ROMAN VETERAN. 8/ 
 
 pliant spirit that thus characterised the polytheism of the 
 Roman empire, that the worship, of which these broken gods 
 were the objects, was entirely wanting in depth and earnest- 
 ness. While many simply paid tribute to custom, and a 
 system that multiplied its deities to an excess of absurdity,* 
 must appear superficial from our standpoint, the religious 
 instinct is a reality under all systems and in all ages. Even 
 in the sceptical, brutal, sensual Rome of the worst of the 
 Cajsars, the earnestness that anciently lay at the root of this 
 mass of superstition still pulsed in many a heart. The avidity 
 with which the world-weary soul turned to welcome the 
 new superstitions, that crowded into the Roman temples from 
 Egypt and the East, indicates this. We may infer it, too, 
 of the piety which set up these broken altars and statues 
 in the camps and settlements of this remote colony. The 
 circumstances of the life of the Roman veteran or settler 
 alone tended to give renewed intensity to superstition. 
 Placed far from the blandishments of the imperial capital, 
 surrounded by strange scenes, in which the associations of 
 home and custom acquire a new force, impressed by the 
 dark forests and wild landscapes that might conceal the 
 lurking foe, the veteran that guarded the walls and stations, 
 and the colonist, who cultivated his farm under their 
 protection, doubtless worshipped at the family shrine and 
 joined in the ritual of the temple with the simple sincerity 
 of their forefathers of ancient Latium. We may not dream, 
 as we cast a wondering glance at these timeworn memorials 
 of a fallen superstition, how realistic the role they played in 
 the view of their votaries, how many heart throbs have 
 imprinted themselves upon them. The simple inscription 
 that tells of the pious sentiments of the rough soldier — his 
 gratitude for recovery from illness, or the tender sorrow with 
 which he mourned the loss of some one beloved, or the prayer 
 for the realisation of some longing amid the toils and dangers 
 to which he was exposed — forms often a touching memorial 
 of the common humanity that binds us to the past and to our 
 fellow-man of every age and every race. It is the same 
 
 * " There was a little god who causes the infant to utter its first cry ; there- 
 is another who presides over its first word ; one who teaches the baby to eat, 
 another to drink, and finally one who keeps it quiet in its cradle" (Renan, 
 " The Influence of Institutions of Rome," p. ii). 
 
88 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 human heart reveaHng itself in loni,f;ng, joy, fear, gratitude, 
 the same human* tone that gave colour to religion then as it 
 still does, though in more spiritual hues perhaps. 
 
 Among the countless gods, which thus overshadowed the 
 lives of the veterans stationed in the north of the island, we 
 find all the chief members of the Roman hierarchy. The 
 combination of deities which are met with on some of the 
 inscribed stones throws a curious light on the religious 
 capacities of the polytheist. Even Jupiter, " the greatest 
 and best," does not always stand alone in the adoration of 
 his votary. Among the five broken altars discovered 
 together at Auchindavy was one "to Jupiter and Victory." 
 On another, the honour was divided between " Mars, 
 Minerva, the Field Deities, Epona, and Victory," the 
 worshipper being able apparently to reconcile his partiality 
 for the grossly impure characteristics of Epona with his 
 devotion to the noble Minerva. Another, from the camp 
 at Maryport in Cumberland, is quite as expressive. It is 
 dedicated " to the Genii of the place, to Fortune who had 
 brought him back, to Eternal Rom.e, and to Propitious 
 Fate," and appears to signify the desire of the suppliant to 
 secure, in that calculating spirit, not altogether a stranger 
 to the sectarianism of our time, an answer from one or other 
 of them. But the most comprehensive and characteristic 
 of all is the inscription on the temple erected at Cambech 
 Fort on the wall of Hadrian, "to the Deities of all nations," 
 while the cosmopolitanism of the age, which gave rise to 
 this tolerant appreciation, is finely expressed on an altar, 
 " To the good of the human race," found among the debris 
 of the once imposing station of Bremenium, near the 
 Border. Particular attention was paid to the insular deities, 
 as is shown by the statue of the goddess Brigantia,t found 
 
 * On the stone slabs which were erected over the dead, ]iarents mourn for 
 some " sweet innocent child." Wives are foiunl testifyinjj their sorrow for the 
 beloved dead, and husbands praising the virtue of their helpmeets. One 
 uniquely hajipy man records the fact that he managed to live for twenty-seven 
 years with his wife without a single (juarrel. Food and ornaments, and the 
 indispensable coin Id pay Charon, may also be regarded as expressions of deep 
 feeling. 
 
 + Wright (" Celt, Roman, and Sa.xon ") tliinks that this was a deity from 
 Bregenzium in .Switzerland, not the goddess of the Brigantes, who inhabited 
 the northern part of Britain, from Yorkshire to the Eildons. 
 
RELIGIOUS CAPACITIES OF THE POLYTHEIST. 89 
 
 at Birrens, and the magnificent temple to Nodens, the Celtic 
 Zeus, excavated at Lydney, on the banks of the Severn. 
 Whenever a camp was formed, or a city founded, one of the 
 first cares of the veteran, or the settler was to propitiate the 
 local genii — the supernatural powers with which the imagi- 
 nation peopled mountain and plain, stream and wood, and 
 whose favour was a point of the first importance to the 
 invading legions, who penetrated into the solitudes of these 
 wild, remote regions, or kept guard under a cheerless, 
 unsympathetic sky. Hence the prominence of " the God of 
 the Mountains," who was worshipped at Bremenium ; " the 
 Deities of the Plains," and " Silvanus," to whom several 
 altars have been found on the sites of Roman stations in 
 the north. The roads too were entrusted to the god,* who 
 devised ways and paths ; and the nymphs, who presided 
 over the streams and fountains, lived long in the religious 
 consciousness of their Roman admirers in Scotland before 
 they were reduced to the phantasms of poetry. 
 
 Among the deities of the foreign levies, the Deje Matres,- 
 or Three Matrons, were most popular in the north, where there 
 were strong contingents from the banks of the Rhine and 
 Northern Gaul, their original haunts. The best representa- 
 tion of them, that I have seen, is on an altar in the museum at 
 Cologne, in which they occupy a sitting posture, and hold 
 each a basket of fruit. Before they were changed into the 
 Three Furies of mediaeval witchcraft, they presided over the 
 woods and fields, prearranged the fate of individuals, and 
 dispensed the blessings of Providence to mankind.! The 
 superstition of the far East is represented by the worship of 
 the ]\Iagusian Hercules :|: (so named from Magusa, a town of 
 Ethiopia, where he was specially honoured), and of the Sun- 
 God, Mithras, Lord of the Ages, whose rites were celebrated 
 in a cave at Housesteads in Northumberland. So popular 
 had the worship of the latter, with its mysteries, temples, 
 and rites, resembling to some extent those of Christianity, 
 become in Rome and throughout the West, that it seemed 
 
 * Cssar gave the name of Mercury to this god among the Gauls. An 
 altar was discovered at Gretabridge, in Yorkshire, to this unnamed deity. 
 t An altar was found near Cramond in their honour. 
 + An altar was found at Polmont dedicated to him. 
 
90 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 as if it would dispute with the God of the Christians the 
 honour of dethronini^ the vast pagan hierarchy, and M. 
 Renan has hazarded the assertion " that if Christianity had 
 not carried the day, Mithraism would have become the 
 reliijion of the world." * 
 
 The mention of these, among many broken gods, may 
 suffice to show the varied and strongly rooted superstitions, 
 which gave tangible expression to the emotions of the 
 soul. It became the nurse of the higher art in Britain. At 
 Birrens there lived the sculptor Julius Ccrulis Censorinus, 
 " image-maker," as he tells us, in the inscription on a colossal 
 statue of Mercury found there, to the guild or college of 
 the Ligniferi, the worshippers of the God. The figure is 
 probably his workmanship. Another, for which we are 
 indebted to the architect Amandus, is that of the native 
 goddess, Brigantia ; a winged figure holding a spear in the 
 right hand and a globe in the left. A third piece of sculp- 
 ture, found on the wall of Antonine, represents a sacred 
 ceremonial in which the priest stands at the altar, with four 
 figures behind, and several animals for sacrifice in front, 
 while a boy plays on the double whistle, the usual accom- 
 paniment of such a rite. As far north as Strathmore, the 
 trace of this religious art has perpetuated itself on a slab 
 which long served as the hearthstone of a cottage situated 
 near the place where it was discovered, but which is now in 
 the museum at Perth. It contains a representation of a 
 martial figure seated on a car, drawn by two lions or 
 leopards. The word Mercurius occurs in the fragment of 
 the inscription said to have been discovered along with it. 
 The art of this religious sculpture, of which about fift\- 
 examples have been found in North Britain, is, to use the 
 words of Burton, " more ambitious than successful," as 
 might be expected of objects made in a remote colon}- ; but 
 one found at Middleby representing a youth, standing in a 
 niche, wearing a crown and holding a cornucopia in his left 
 hand, and a patera, from which he pours out a libation on 
 an altar in his right, has long excited the admiration of 
 archajologists. It is decidedly inferior to the secular art 
 that adorned the houses of the rich. The ni\-thological 
 
 * " InlUicnce," &c., p. 35. 
 
INTOLERANT ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY. 9 1 
 
 fisTure?, the ornamental tracer)-, the scenes of daily life 
 which, in contrast to the mere mechanical decoration of 
 prehistoric times, the taste of these Roman colonists 
 delighted in, as ornament for their household utensils, or 
 the walls or floors of the luxurious villas of the south, are 
 often executed with great truth and spirit. It strikes one, 
 indeed, that, in the matter of genre scenes, Britain surpassed, 
 in common with Gaul, the conventional and purely mytho- 
 logical representations of Italy itself. 
 
 In contrast to the pliant spirit, which is so striking a 
 feature of the polytheism of the empire, the intolerant 
 treatment of Christianity is very marked. This much must 
 be granted, however, that Christianity brought persecution 
 on itself. It was the Christian rather than the pagan that 
 was intolerant, though his intolerance sprang from high 
 moral sentiments. The gods seemed instinctively to re- 
 cognise, in the unbending attitude of the followers of Jesus, 
 the enemy that was to overthrow them. Though some 
 of the emperors are reported to have placed the statue of 
 Christ in the Roman Pantheon, there was no bond of agree- 
 ment between the pagan deities and the unaccommodating 
 God of the Christians. The worship of Christ admitted 
 that of no rival. It was, in fact, an unspoken protest 
 against the traditional cult, with which the histor}- of a 
 great past was associated, and which custom at least 
 rendered sacred. It militated, too, against the whole social 
 system of the time, and did not hesitate to thwart the im- 
 perial will itself Hence the bitterness with which it was 
 assailed as an illiberal and revolutionary superstition. 
 Hence the popular tumults and the imperial proscription, 
 which frequently resulted in persecution and mart\Tdom, 
 not merely in the seat of empire, but in the most distant 
 provinces as well. " No rain — the Christians are the cause," 
 became a Roman proverb, and the popular cry, "The 
 Christians to the lions," was quickly raised, when any 
 calamity afflicted the state or the community. Men, then, 
 as they have often done, failed to understand the destiny of 
 a movement like this. The}^ either treated it as beneath 
 their notice, as most of the pagan writers of the first three 
 centuries did, or they thought to suppress it by intolerant 
 
92 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 edicts. Ikit it would neither be ignored nor killed by force. 
 It held the future in its hands. However much their op- 
 ponents ridiculed its pretensions, its adherents had the 
 assurance of their convictions, and, as we see from the letter 
 of Melitus of Sardis to Marcus Aurelius, looked forward to 
 its final triumph. And not without cause. Both by its 
 spiritual teaching and its power of inspiration, it was quietly 
 but surely revolutionising the Roman empire, while the 
 popular polytheism and the philosophies of the age were 
 alike stricken b\' decay. '• Every pro\ince conquered by 
 the Roman empire,"' it has been well said,* " was a pro- 
 vince conquered for Christianity." The Roman soldier 
 opened the way for the Christian missionary, and the 
 spiritual conquest which he achieved, as well as the ecclesi- 
 astical .system which arose out of it, outlived alike the vast 
 political unity which the Roman generals had founded, and 
 the cosmopolitan paganism as.sociated with it. But while it 
 displaced the latter, it in a sense perpetuated the former. 
 From the age of Constantine, it became identified with the 
 political life of the empire, and when this fell a victim to its 
 own decay and the vigour of the barbarian invaders, the 
 grandeur of the Eternal City still lived in the power and 
 pomp of the Christian Church. " The Church," as M. 
 Renan happily puts it, " has remained up to our own day, 
 as it were, a remnant of the empire. Throughout all the 
 Middle Ages the Church is no other than the old Rome, 
 regaining its authority over the barbarians who have con- 
 quered it, imposing upon them its decretals, as it formerly 
 imposed its law.s, governing them by its cardinals, as it once 
 governed them by its imperial legates and its proconsuls." t 
 It was certainly a splendid creation, this spiritual unit}-, that 
 bound men by the bond of a common worship, in place of 
 the political unity, shattered by the Teutonic barbarians, if 
 it afterwards degenerated into an ecclesiastical despotism, 
 in some respects less humanitarian than the tyranny of 
 imperial Rome. 
 
 Such was the destiny of that " pernicious superstition," J 
 
 • Renan, '• Inlluence of the Institutions, &c., of Rome," p. 19. 
 
 t Ibiil., p. 19. 
 
 X " -Ann.,"' \v. 44. 
 
NON-INTELLECTUAL CIIRISTL^NITV. 93 
 
 which excited the contempt of so noble-spirited an historian 
 as Tacitus, but which thus won its way to the possession of 
 the West in spite of contempt or intolerance. While in the 
 first three centuries of the empire we find it struggling to 
 establish itself in every province — Britain not excepted — in 
 the face of persecution, during the fourth and fifth it is pro- 
 fessed by the emperors themselves, and the edicts that were 
 once promulgated for its destruction, now command its 
 reception, and before long enforce its complete domination. 
 This result it owed partly, no doubt, to the policy of 
 Constantine, who saw his interest in adhesion to it. But it 
 owed it, in reality, far more to the power with which its 
 teaching took hold of the hearts and influenced the lives of 
 its disciples. As a theological system, it might fail to com- 
 mend itself to the philosophic observer, with its popular 
 supernaturalism and fantastic representations. I, for my 
 part, cannot blame the cultured minds of the time if they 
 felt little edified by many of the reasonings of the Christian 
 Fathers, on subjects on which it is usual to make dogma 
 pass for truth. There is not much intellectual enlighten- 
 ment to be looked for in men, who were so much the 
 creatures of their age as to regard the pagan gods not as 
 creatures of fancy, but as demons, or who would accept a 
 literary forgery without question, if it supported the par- 
 ticular view to which they were attached. Those gods, too, 
 whom they waged fierce war against, as the enemies of 
 Christ, will by-and-by return, as saints and martyrs to 
 occupy anew the religious imagination. A Seneca or a 
 Tacitus might, with no little force, excuse themselves from 
 accepting a theological system, in which credulity quarrelled 
 so much with reason. But Christianity is not a philosoph}' ; 
 it is a faith; not happily a creed simply, but a life, and it is 
 in this latter sense that it made its power felt in that 
 ancient world, whose moral corruption and spiritual decay 
 were sapping the life of society. In the worship of Christ, 
 in the influence of His teaching, in the bond of brotherhood 
 begotten by a common faith and a common sympathy, in 
 the reflection of the inner ideal from the pure and benevo- 
 lent life, in the heroism which sprang from the most exalted 
 ideas of duty and sacrifice, in the self-abasement that 
 
94 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 sought inspiration from above, lies the secret of that 
 magnetic force, which thrilled the souls of men to the 
 remotest bound of the empire, and which is to be noted as 
 the most fertile element of good in the experience of that 
 period. We can forgive the age its theological contro- 
 versies, its unreasonable dogma, which produced the charm 
 that leavened societx* with a new life, where the old gods 
 had utterly failed. Philosophy, too, had spoken in the 
 schools these many centuries, but largely without powerful 
 effect. Stoicism espccialh' had lifted up its voice against 
 the degradation of the moral sentiment and the superficial 
 superstition of the age. Like Christianit}', it doubtless 
 counted its disciples amid the camps and colonial settle- 
 ments of Britain. It is the figure of the Stoic, embodying 
 the nobler type of Roman thought and character, that I 
 prefer to conjure from the ranks of the dead veterans, who 
 once made these long-deserted stations as full of life as a 
 "Wallenstein's Lager." It formed the religion of many 
 earnest souls for whom the poetry of the popular cult, or 
 the emotional worship of the Christians, had no attraction, 
 and its teachers inculcated many sublime truths. In con- 
 trast to the crudities of the popular rites, or the materialism 
 of a Lucretius or a Petronius, they held the spiritual idea of 
 God. To Cicero the Deity appeared as mind freed from all 
 matter, and Lucan spoke of the majestic, all-persuasive 
 spirit, whose throne is virtue and the universe.* In the 
 emphasis which they laid on the duties of self-examination, 
 humanity, and universal brotherhood, and submission to 
 the divine will, their teaching bore so much resemblance to 
 Christianity that it has been inferred, though without 
 sufficient ground, that the}- had come under the influence 
 of the Christian spirit. Many of its representatives nobl}' 
 exemplified in an active public life, the doctrine that "all 
 virtue lies in action." " ]\Iarcus Aurelius, the purest mind 
 of the sect, was for nineteen years the active ruler of the 
 civilised globe. Thrasea, Hebridius, Cornutus, and a crowd 
 of others, who adopted Stoicism as a religion, lived, and 
 in many cases died, in obedience to its precepts, struggling 
 for the liberties of their country in the darkest hours of 
 
 * See Lc(ky, " History of ICuropc.Tn Morals," i.. jip. 163, 164. 
 
STOIC VEHSUS CHRISTIAN. 95 
 
 tyranny."* Like Christianity, too, it had its wandering 
 preachers and lecturers, and the eloquence of the Stoic, 
 Dion Chrysostom, entranced with equal force the polished 
 audiences gathered to witness the Olympic games and the 
 rude barbarians of Scythia. His great Christian namesake, 
 John Chrysostom, was not more popular as an orator. Yet 
 it did not succeed in influencing society in any appreciable 
 degree. Its pride of rational perfection, which expressed 
 itself in the most audacious comparisons with the Deity, its 
 striving to attain the command of the will at the expense 
 of the emotions, its want of enthusiasm and its impractica- 
 bility to touch the common level of men, hindered its high 
 moral and spiritual teaching from bearing much fruit. By 
 attempting too much, and omitting to reckon with human 
 nature, it failed to leaven and inspire the heart of the 
 masses. Christianity, on the other hand, came as an in- 
 spiration to duty, because it appealed to the heart of the 
 humblest and the weakest. It bent down to man and 
 excited his devotion to a person, not to a philosophy. It 
 taught the humility that makes our ideals seem so difficult, 
 yet likewise kindled the love that dares all for Christ's sake. 
 Thus it made possible to human nature a devotion, a self- 
 sacrifice, a heroism whose story is one of the most noble 
 heritages of the race. Not merely in the seething corrup- 
 tion and moral bankruptcy of pagan Rome did the intense 
 spirit of its martyrs, before it became attenuated by the 
 reaction of success, wield a leavening effect. Where\-er the 
 missionary came, its reviving power was felt, nor is it too 
 much to say that it contributed greatly to save society 
 throughout the provinces, exposed to the withering moral 
 influences of a decaying political system. What M. Guizotf 
 has so eloquently pictured as its recuperative effects in 
 Gaul in opposition to such influences, doubtless applies to 
 some extent to Roman Britain, whither not merely the 
 schoolmaster, but the missionary, came from across the 
 Channel, though the record of its establishment and develop- 
 ment is all too scanty. 
 
 In contrast to the traces of the cosmopolitan polytheism 
 of the empire, the relics of the more spiritual religion, that 
 * Lecky, ibid., i., p. 202, f " Histoire de la Civilisation en France." 
 
96 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 supplanted it, are extremely few in number. Besides the 
 Christian tombstones with Latin inscriptions discovered at 
 Kirkmadrinc and at Whithorn, which evidently belong to 
 the period immediately following the departure of the 
 Roman troops from our shores, a single object showing 
 a.ssociation with Christian ideas — a silver bowl ornamented 
 with the monogram of Christ, found at Corbridge, North- 
 umberland — is the only memorial of early Christianity in 
 the north. Even the sites of the opulent cities and luxurious 
 villas in the more fertile and highly civilised districts of 
 the south — the vales of Gloucester and Kent — have yielded 
 onlv the most mea^jre evidence of the establishment of 
 Christianity. This fact has led some archaeologists to con- 
 clude that it had failed to undermine the dominant paganism 
 in any appreciable degree. " The very small number of 
 Roman objects ornamented with Christian devices, as com- 
 pared with the total quantity of antiquities discovered in 
 Great Britain, tends to show that Christianity can have made 
 but little progress here during the first four centuries."* 
 " Christianity," says the same writer,! " cannot be said to 
 have influenced the art of this country to any appreciable 
 extent during the period of the Roman occupation." Too 
 much stress must not be laid on this fact, however, as in 
 Gaul, where Christianity had firmly and generally estab- 
 lished itself at least during the latter half of the fourth 
 century, inscriptions do not become common till the middle 
 of the fifth. Legend, on the other hand, putting on the 
 sincere face of history, dates the conversion of the Britons 
 at a very early period, and gravely claims for it the honour 
 of an apostolic origin — St Peter, St Paul, Simon Zelotcs, 
 St James the Great, Aristobulus, and Joseph of Arimathea 
 have been each assigned a share in the good work. Such 
 talcs are unworthy of consideration in view of their manifest 
 absurditv, though some of them have had their advocates 
 in comparatively recent times. Modern research has demon- 
 strated the fictitious origin of others, of a more circum- 
 stantial character. Bran the Blessed, the earliest of these 
 
 •"Christian Symbolism in Great Britain and Irciaml," J. Komilly Allen, 
 p. 77. C/. Wright, "Celt, Saxon, anil Roman," pp. 353, 356. 
 + •' Monumental History of the Hrili^h Church," p. 144. 
 
LEGENDARY BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY. 9/ 
 
 missionaries, next to the apostles themselves, or those 
 immediately connected with them, turns out, as we have 
 seen, to have been a Celtic war-god transformed into a 
 missionary saint.* The assertion of Gildasf that Chris- 
 tianity had won for itself a footing in his country as early 
 as the reign of Tiberius amounts to nothing more than an 
 unwarrantable extension of certain words of Eusebius, so 
 as to include Britain within their scope. Although the 
 accurate Bsda gave currency to the alleged mission from 
 Pope Eleutherus to the so-called British king, Lucius, in the 
 latter half of the second century, the statement in the " Cata- 
 logue of the Popes," on which he relied, has been proved to 
 be an unfounded interpolation. + It might well have arisen 
 in the age of the chronicler Prosper, in the fifth century, 
 who shows a suspicious tendency to exalt the papal 
 power. Equally unhistoric is the application for Christian 
 instruction and baptism by the Scottish king, Donald, to 
 Pope Victor in 202, which we owe to Fordun and Hector 
 Boece. No king of this name is known to have existed at 
 this early period, nor was there any Scottish settlement in 
 Britain before the end of the fifth century.§ An invariable 
 feature of such legends is the long blank between the alleged 
 event and its record, while the facility with which they 
 increase in detail, in the hands of successive writers, does not 
 tend to allay our suspicions. Only in the pages of con- 
 temporary authors may we look for trustworthy information 
 regarding a subject so obscured by the fables of mediaeval 
 credulity. |1 Happily, although we have no such British 
 source of information, the works of some of the Fathers 
 contain instructive glimpses of British Christianity during 
 the Roman period, which modify the meagre testimony 
 of archaeology. Of these, the first is TertullianlT (^. a.d, 108). 
 
 * Rhys, " Arthurian Legend," pp. 261, 262. f " Hist.," sect. 8. 
 
 :;: Haddan and Stubbs, "Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents," vol. i. 
 Cf. Rettberg, " Kirchen Geschichte Deutschlands," Bd. i., p. 142, who dis- 
 poses of the legend that Lucius went to Regensburg, where he preached and 
 was martyred. 
 
 § Skene, " Chronicle of the Picts and Scots." Cf. "Celtic Scotland," i., 
 pp. 140, 141. 
 
 11 " Legend," it has been truly said, "retrospectively makes history what it 
 ought tohavebeen, but what it never really was" (Renan, "Influence," p. 141). 
 
 H "Adv. Jud.,"vii. 
 
 G 
 
98 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 " The regions of Britain, inaccessible to the Romans, have 
 been subdued to Christ,"he triumphantly exclaims, when dis- 
 coursing to his Jewish adversaries of the rapid and compre- 
 hensive spread of the Gospel. A more striking culmination 
 for his fervid eloquence he could not have wished. To take 
 his words literally, however, would be to overlook their rhe- 
 torical character, as well as the impossibility that Christianity 
 had penetrated beyond the frontier of the Roman province, in 
 the face of historical evidence that it only did so in the time 
 of St Ninian, two centuries later. It might have been 
 known to some tribe within the Roman dominion, which 
 had risen in temporary revolt, but even if this be the 
 meaning, there is still ample room for the charge of exag- 
 geration. We may take the statement, however, as at least 
 implying the reported existence of Christians in Britain — in 
 those parts of the province which were subject to revolt 
 and invasion. When the Fathers speak of the spread of 
 Christianity, they cannot fairly expect to be taken as his- 
 torians, but only as advocates. The testimony of Origen, 
 half a century later, is rather indecisive. While he tells us 
 in one place of the churches that comprehended Mauritania 
 and Britain and the limits of the earth, he complains in 
 another, that many nations, and among them the Britons, 
 had not yet had an opportunity of embracing the faith. 
 Such contradictory statements reveal an indistinct know- 
 ledge of the hold which Christianitv had then taken in the 
 remote quarters of the empire, and a tendency, in the 
 earlier Fathers, sometimes to take a good deal for granted 
 in their endeavour to make out a good case for their 
 struggling creed. But by the expiry of another century 
 this testimony becomes explicit. " The British Isles," writes 
 another defender of the faith against the Jews, Chrysostom 
 {c. A.D. 387), who, unlike the turgid apologist of Carthage, 
 points his eloquence with details, " have felt the power of 
 the Word. For there churches and altars abound ; there }-ou 
 will hear the Gospel expounded in another \-oicc, but not 
 another faith ; in a different tongue, but with the same 
 understanding." Jerome, who frequently expatiates on 
 the spread of the faith from India to the British Isles, 
 observes that Christ was worshipped, and one rule of faith 
 
THE BRITISH CHURCH IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 99 
 
 followed in Britain, as in Gaul, Africa, Persia, India, the 
 East, &c. Augustine is no less positive in his assertion of 
 the strength and prosperit}- of the British Church. " The 
 islands," he says, "are full of Christians, full of servants of 
 God."* 
 
 But we are not left altogether to take on trust statements 
 which the zeal of those who made them would not tend to 
 weaken. The circumstance that the British Church during 
 the fourth century shared in the events, which affected the 
 Church throughout the empire, is a proof of its strength and 
 importance. It was involved in the Diocletian! persecu- 
 tion, and contributed its martyrs to the list of heroes 
 of the faith, though happih' under the moderate rule of 
 Constantius, it did not suffer the violence which afflicted 
 the eastern provinces. The conversion of Constantine, son 
 of Constantius, must have given an impulse to Christianity 
 in Britain, where his claims to the imperial dignity had been 
 strongly supported. We find the British Church powerful 
 enough, too, to make its voice heard in the theological con- 
 troversies which distracted the age. Its bishops took part in 
 the Councils of Aries (314), Ariminium (359), and probably 
 of Nice (323). That it was a national Church in the sense 
 of embracing in its membership the population from the 
 Forth to the Channel is impossible ; but that it was a powerful 
 organisation, exerting, as in Gaul, by its spiritual vigour 
 and expansive sympathy, a regenerating influence on an 
 oppressed and enervated people, is certain. One name, 
 closely inwoven with the tradition of the northern part of 
 Britain, has survived the forgetfulness that has buried, with 
 one or two exceptions, those pioneers of spiritual inspiration 
 in an unmerited oblivion. And Ninian — his age and his 
 influence — are well worthy the attempt at portrayal. 
 
 * These and other passages, in the original Latin or Greek, are collected 
 in Haddan and Stubbs, " Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents," vol. i. 
 
 t The assertion of Gillas, however, that it took place under Diocletian is 
 another instance of his application to Britain of the words of Eusebius in regard 
 to persecution in general. The martyrdom of St Alban has been preserved 
 in the tradition associated with the name of the modern English town. Con- 
 stantius, who wrote the Life of Germanus, first notes it, and Gildas adds the 
 names of two other martyrs. 
 
100 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 NINL\N — HLS AGE AND HIS INFLUENCE. 
 
 N IN I AN has had the good fortune of finding a 
 biographer in the Venerable Ba;da. He has 
 recorded, only in briefest compass, it is true, the 
 tradition concerning the saint and his labours, which was 
 current in his day. His notice occurs in the paragraph of 
 his " Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation," which he 
 devotes to the work of Columba among the Northern Picts, 
 but its brevity is not to be taken as measuring the 
 importance of the movement, of which Ninian was the 
 leader. It did not come directly within the scope of the 
 writer, and even the mission of Columba, which he touches 
 on from its intimate connection with the evangelisation of 
 the Angles of Northumbria, and which we know from the 
 fuller and equally reliable testimony of Adamnan, had 
 produced a very powerful effect, is dismissed in a \ery 
 summary fashion. He never even mentions St Patrick, 
 though he often refers to the sister isle, and his apparent 
 ignorance of one who enjoyed a reputation second to none 
 amons the Irish Celts, makes his curt treatment of Nini;in 
 less surprising. We must remember, too, that Ba;da's fervid 
 attachment to the ritual of the Roman Church and the 
 supremacy of its head led him to look down on, if not 
 altogether to ignore the British Church, which during the 
 seventh and eighth centuries resisted the authority of the 
 Popes in their efforts to bring about unity of practice. But 
 the two sentences into which he compresses the traditions 
 that kept alive the memor\- of Ninian throughout an interval 
 of three hundred years, possess the merit of being compre- 
 hensive, and the authority of the usually accurate and 
 erudite monk of Jarrow* lends them a value seldom 
 
 * We can trace the source of his knowledge in his friendship with Pecthclm, 
 the Anglian IMshop of Candida Casa in his time, to whom the story of Ninian's 
 hbours would be a subject of the closest interest. 
 
POST-MORTEM REPUTATION OP^ NINIAN. lOI 
 
 attributable to the diffuse pages of the monkish biographer. 
 " For the Southern Picts, who dwell on this side of these 
 mountains, had long before, as is reported,, forsaken the, 
 errors of idolatry and embraced the truth 'by tlic pt'eachnig ;' 
 of Ninias, a most reverend and holy" man of the Britiah ■ 
 nation, who had been regularly instructed ^r Rome in the'' 
 faith and mysteries of the truth, whose episcopal see, 
 named after St Martin the bishop, and famous for a stately 
 church wherein he and many other saints rest in the body, 
 is still in existence among the English nation. The place 
 belongs to the province of the Bernicians, and is generally 
 called the White House, because he there built a church of 
 stone, which was not usual among the Britons." * 
 
 The repute in which his memory was held in the 
 ecclesiastical tradition of the eighth century, is further 
 evinced by the tribute which another learned and polished 
 writer of the Anglo-Saxon Church — the celebrated Alcuin — 
 paid to it. In a letter to the monastic community at 
 Candida Casa, which, under a different political and ecclesi- 
 astical system, maintained the tradition of the place, he 
 extols its venerable founder whose virtues had inspired the 
 religious muse of his former pupils at York. That it 
 continued to maintain itself throughout the next four 
 centuries is proved by the legendary lives composed in his 
 honour, and the consequent popularity of his shrine as the 
 resort of pilgrims down to the time of the Reformation. 
 Some thirty years ago the removal of a portion of the 
 choir of the ruined sixteenth century church of my native 
 place, Turriff, in Aberdeenshire, brought to light the figure 
 of a bishop, painted in bright colours on the splay of a 
 window hitherto built up, the right hand raised in bene- 
 diction, the left holding a pastoral staff, with the letters 
 " S. Ninianus" written above— a touching homage to the 
 merits of one who, though dead, still spoke to so many 
 generations of the living. 
 
 One of these legendary lives we owe to Ailred, Abbot of 
 Rievaux,t in Yorkshire (i 143-1 166), who was educated at 
 
 *"Eccl. Hist.."iii. 4. 
 
 t Edited and translated from the Latin by the late Bishop Forbes in vol. v. 
 of the " Historians of Scotland." 
 
I02 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 the court of King David, and visited Gallowa}-. Another, 
 latel}- discovered, is attributed to the poet Barbour ; while 
 a third, by a nameless Irish monk, now lost, is noticed 
 by Archbishop Ussher and the Bollandists. Written for 
 ; edification, and coloured by the ecclesiastical tendencies 
 ■ oC the age, they are of almost no historical value for the 
 time of which they treat. That b}- Ailrcd professes to be 
 a Latin embellishment of an older work written in " a 
 barbarous language." It is not impossible that an account 
 of the saint, composed b\- some affectionate disciple after 
 his death, had survived down to the twelfth century, in spite 
 even of the destruction which Gildas bewails as having 
 overtaken the literar}- remains of his country, during the 
 unsettled times following the departure of the Romans. The 
 survival of the Epistle and Confession of St Patrick through- 
 out the ravages of war and Norse invasion, which devastated 
 Ireland in the Middle Ages, is evidence of this. But it 
 would most likely have been a ver)- different work from the 
 laboured, meagre, and vague production of Ailred, whose 
 rhetoric is in fact but a veil thrown over his ignorance and 
 personal predilections. Nevertheless the movement which 
 lies behind the shadowv obscurit\' of mediaeval legend was 
 undoubtedly of far-reaching importance in the history of 
 early Scottish Culture, and though the ruins of the mediaeval 
 cathedral and the old chapel of St Ninian at Whithorn no 
 longer attract the pilgrim, they invite the student of Culture 
 to linger for a little in questioning mood beside their 
 crumbling walls. 
 
 Tradition locates Ninian"s birthplace on the northern 
 shore of the Solway Firth. It also ascribes to him a ro_\-al 
 pedigree, but this is an honour which he possesses in common 
 with many saints, to whom posterity did homage in this 
 fashion. His royal descent can onh- mean at the most that 
 he was the .son of some chief, to whom the Romans permitted 
 a modicum of power. Remote and difficult of access as 
 the wilder parts of Galloway and Dumfries are, there are 
 not wanting traces of the Roman in the fertile belt of land 
 that lies between the shore of the Solwav and the moors 
 and mountains of the interior.* The tribes that the 
 
 * On the site of Candida Casa itself, a British hamlet (Lcucophibia), 
 
THE SPELL WIELDED PA' ROME. IO3 
 
 Romans found inhabiting the district were certainly not 
 the most submissive and peaceful subjects of the imperial 
 province. Not onl\- were they anciently engaged in 
 constant wars with their eastern neighbours, the Brigantes, 
 which were renewed once at least after both had been con- 
 quered by the legions, but we find them under the name of 
 Attccotti joining the Pictish invaders in the latter part of the 
 fourth century, and making a last strenuous effort to regain 
 their independence.* The revolt was crushed by the vigour 
 of the general Theodosius, and, as a precautionary measure, 
 a large number of the able-bodied men was sent into exile 
 as auxiliary levies of the Roman army in Gaul and Spain. 
 Theodosius consolidated anew the Roman dominion 
 between the walls, and organised it into a separate 
 department. The year of Ninian's birth may, with reason- 
 able certainty, be placed in the period when these events 
 took place, and whether he was the son of some Christian 
 chief, or like St Patrick, of a citizen of some Roman town 
 in North Britain, he must have been largely influenced by 
 Roman ideas and Roman habits. 
 
 It is not easy for us now, lingering amid the humble 
 ruins of the marvellous civilisation that spread itself from 
 classic Italy to the remote and rude peoples of the north, 
 to picture to ourselves the spell wielded by Rome upon the 
 teeming millions that owned her sway. As the ancient 
 seat of a world-wide dominion, as the centre of events on 
 which hung the destiny of half the world, as the queenly 
 source of the law, the culture, the refinement that moulded 
 human society from the borders of Persia to the walls of 
 Antonine, the capital of the Caesars held the minds of men 
 enthralled by the magic of her name. Before the rise of 
 Constantinople, her splendour dimmed that of every other 
 city. This influence of a mighty name was inseparable 
 from the colossal power, the high civilisation of which it 
 was the emblem, and is a significant fact in the history of 
 the most distant possessions of the empire. It doubtless 
 contributed something to the preservation of that vast unity 
 
 associated with Roman military works, already stood when Ptolemy sketched 
 his map of Britain. 
 
 * Rhys, " Celtic Britain," pp. 90, 91. 
 
104 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 which the Roman legions and the Roman energy of govern- 
 ment had created. It excited a .sentiment of homage to the 
 genius of Italy which the military power and the law of the 
 conquerors might not beget in a conquered race. It made 
 men feel proud of having a common property in the 
 splendid traditions of a glorious past. It tended to beget 
 that enthusiasm, tempered by reverence for what is great 
 and memorable, which assimilates the minds of alien 
 peoples under a foreign rule. From the mighty city on the 
 seven hills, with its heroes and romance, its imperial majesty 
 and classic splendour, went forth a moulding influence that 
 was an unconscious education in itself Even yet we 
 experience its spell as we yield to the charm of the im- 
 perishable literature, and listen to the tale of the fallen 
 grandeur of which it was the centre. How much more 
 powerful this influence on the susceptible soul, in the age 
 when men felt the living touch of the imperial and classic 
 goddess ! We remark it in the passionate strain of a poet 
 like Rutilius Numatianus of Gaul, who had been Prefect of 
 Rome, and wrote at the beginning of the fifth century. 
 " Hear me, listen, O Rome ! ever beauteous queen of a 
 world that is for ever thine own, thou who art one among 
 the Olympians, hearken mother of men and of gods; when 
 we pray in thy temples we are not far from heaven. For 
 thee the sun doth turn on his course ; he rises upon thy 
 dominions, and in their seas doth he plunge his chariot. 
 From so many diverse nations hast thou moulded one sole 
 country ; from that which was a world hast thou made a 
 city. He who can count thy trophies can tell the number 
 of the stars. Thy gleaming temples dazzle the eye. . . . 
 Thy }'ear is but an eternal spring, and vanquished winter 
 respects thy pleasures." * 
 
 To the imagination of the educated class among the 
 distant provincials, this queen of the world must have been 
 as the inspiration of an epos, not dulled, but heightened by 
 distance, and we may safely believe that its quickening 
 power was not lost on the youthful Xinian. His journey 
 to Rome, which rests on the autinjrity of Biuda, is, in view 
 of this magnetic charm that influenced the whole civilised 
 
 * Quoted by Ozanair., i. 55. 
 
BRITISH I'lLr.RIMS. IO5 
 
 world, as probable as that a young Australian or an 
 educated native of India should be attracted to the im- 
 perial centre of British fashion and wealth. But in a 
 country partially Christian at least, and for a youth who, 
 according to his monkish biographer, added a strong 
 religious enthusiasm to a deep thirst for knowledge, the 
 impulse Romewards would be strengthened by the stirring 
 Christian memories associated with the classic imperial 
 capital. As the scene of the sufferings of Peter and Paul, 
 as well as of the shrines of countless heroes of the faith, it 
 already began in the latter half of the fourth century to 
 attract crowds of pilgrims, whose piety sought the inspira- 
 tion of communion with a stirring past at the tombs of its 
 mighty dead. The sympathy which thus drew young 
 zealots like St Jerome to spend frequent hours of prayer 
 and contemplation in the Catacombs* and hermit enthu- 
 siasts to erect their cells on the sacred ground, counted its 
 devotees from all parts of the Roman world. It invested the 
 once pagan city with a sacred interest, second only to that of 
 the site of the Holy Sepulchre itself, and while the historian t 
 has remarked the presence of British Christians among the 
 crowd of pilgrims who, about the end of the fourth century, 
 came to intensify their devotion at the spot where Jesus 
 suffered, the shrines of His two most celebrated apostles 
 were not left unhonoured. This new-born reverence, in 
 casting the glowing fervour of its enthusiasm over the 
 proud seat of imperial triumph and classic beauty, derived 
 thereby increased stimulus, which might well have stirred 
 the imagination of a Ninian. 
 
 Rome, too, had begun to embody an idea which was 
 destined to exercise an epoch-making influence on the 
 destiny of Europe, and which even then wielded a certain 
 power over the thoughts of men. The Roman bishops of 
 the first four centuries were by no means equal in pomp 
 and power to the Popes of mediaeval times. Their rise to 
 the exalted position of ecclesiastical dictators of the West, 
 was simply the combined result of political sagacity and 
 an unflinching struggle to maintain each new pretension. 
 
 * " Op. S. Hieron.," v., p. 433 (ed. Frankfurt, 1684). 
 t Theodoret, "Hist. Laus.," c. iiS. 
 
I06 CULTURE IX EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 But from an early period they enjoyed a certain pre- 
 eminence* especiall)- in the \\'est. This was due partly to 
 the lustre which they derived from their close association 
 with the seat of empire, partly to the apostolic traditions, 
 inwoven with the earlier history of the see. Whilst there 
 are instances in which their authority and growing preten- 
 sions were treated with resentment and even with con- 
 tempt, there are not wanting others in which their advice 
 was received in the sense of a command. The conversion 
 of Constantine first conferred on them an official import- 
 ance in the e\-e of the State, and Silvester presided with all 
 the pomp of the imperial favour over a synod of Italian 
 bishops to consider the burning question of Donatism. It 
 was the emjjeror, however, not the Roman bishop, who 
 was the pontifical head of the Church. In becoming a 
 Christian, Constantine did not divest himself of the office 
 of Pontifex Maximus, but transferred it to the new religion. 
 The edicts affecting the Church, which are embraced in the 
 Codex Theodosianus, are issued in the imperial name and 
 continued to be so till the reign of Valentinian II., who, 
 finding the ecclesiastical government too irksome in the 
 distracted state of the empire, consigned it to the Bishop of 
 Rome. Nevertheless, the traditional importance of the see 
 of Rome, as the seat of St Peter, had been growing in the 
 view of Western Christendom during the first four cen- 
 turies, and the removal of the imperial residence, first to 
 Constantinople and, under the late Emperors of the West, to 
 Milan and Ravenna, while it dimmed somewhat the ancient 
 majesty of Rome, tended to concentrate its glorious tradi- 
 tions in the person of its powerful bishops. Their reputa- 
 tion for orthodoxy contributed an additional element to 
 their influence with the Churches of Gaul and Italy, and led 
 the Council of Sardica (347) to permit the right of appeal 
 to them from the decision of council or synod. The 
 ambition and vigour of men like Uamasus, Siricus, and 
 Innocent I., who filled the chair of St Peter during the 
 lifetime of Ninian, were not slow to make the most of their 
 
 * This subject is treated by Milman (" Latin Christianity," i., bks. i and 
 2). with whom Renan, who (" Influence of Institutions of Rome ") exalts the 
 influence of the earlier Roman bishops, may he compared. 
 
PAPAL INFLUENCE IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. lO/ 
 
 advantages. In these strongly marked, energetic figures, 
 we discern the spirit of the mediaeval Popes. The Decretal 
 of Siricus, in answer to the request of Ilimerius, Bishop of 
 Tarragona, for instruction regarding certain doubtful points 
 of practice, is couched in the style of one who assumes that 
 his words shall be accepted as law. The tone of the 
 epistles of Innocent to the bishops and synods of various 
 provinces, from Thessalonica to Rouen, is still more im- 
 perious. Innocent, in fact, boldly asserted, but of course 
 without reason, that the whole of Italy, the Gallic and 
 Spanish provinces, Africa, Sicily, and the islands lying be- 
 tween them, had been converted b\' Peter or his succes- 
 sors.* The splendour and affluence, which the triumph of 
 Christianity conferred on the Roman bishops, would not 
 tend to diminish the consciousness and the desire of power 
 in the pontifical breast, as it must have added force to their 
 striving for the overlordship of the Church. Pagan observers, 
 even, felt the strength of this argument. " It is by no 
 means surprising," says the historian Ammianus Marcel- 
 ]inus,t " that for so magnificent a prize as the bishopric of 
 Rome, men should contend with the utmost eagerness and 
 obstinacy." The same thought was humorously expressed 
 by the prefect Praetextatus, who jestingly assured Pope 
 Damasus that if he could obtain the chair of St Peter, he 
 would immediately become a Christian. 
 
 The British Church, intimately connected, as we have 
 seen, by the bond of a common faith and practice with 
 Western Christendom, of which Rome was thus the impos- 
 ing and powerful head, must have experienced the mould- 
 ing touch of this ecclesiastical influence. It was not, it is 
 true, the all-powerful force which impressed itself so in- 
 delibly on the thought and history of the Middle Ages, 
 but it was already a colouring and motive power in the 
 provincial culture of St Ninian's day— one of those ideas, 
 associated with the mighty city on the Tiber, which moved 
 the minds of men. We may suspect the monk of J arrow 
 of recording not a fact, but rather an inference of his own 
 time, which witnessed the establishment in a far more 
 
 * See Rettberg, " Kirchen Geschichte Deutschlands." 
 t Am. Mar., xvii. 3 [siil' anno 367). 
 
lOS CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 intense form, of the religious influence of Rome over the 
 British Church, after the long seclusion following the fall of 
 the empire and the Teutonic invasion, but the journey 
 of Ninian to Rome is quite in keeping with the spirit 
 of his age. Jerome had made a similar pilgrimage from 
 Pannonia some twenty years earlier to acquire at the 
 feet of Donatus, the celebrated commentator of Terence 
 and Virgil, the riches of Latin literature, and to fan his 
 zeal amid the memories of the Catacombs. In his letters 
 and commentaries he has thrown a sombre light over the 
 Roman society of his time — clerical as well as lay — and 
 that his animadversions were not the fruit of mere ascetic 
 querulousness is .shown by the severe criticism of Ammianus 
 Marcellinus. 
 
 The intensity of primitive Christianity was represented 
 in the austere fervour of the monks, which would have an 
 irresistible attraction for a youthful zealot like Ninian, and 
 who by the time of his sojourn in Rome had made a con- 
 siderable impression on the Western Church. The life of 
 St Anthony, written by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, 
 during his first exile in the West, was perhaps the most 
 popular and influential book of the day. Its tale of a.scetic 
 excesses caught the imagination of many. The villas of 
 Roman matrons, and even the august precincts of the forum 
 as well as the sites of ruined temples, afforded an asylum for 
 the practice of the monastic life. Thence it extended its 
 conquest over the West till from the islets of the Nile, the 
 arid solitudes of the Thebais, the softer scenes of Palestine, 
 Syria, and Asia Minor, to the rocky islands of the Western 
 Mediterranean, and the forests and mountains of Gaul, the 
 strange spectacle presented itself of a host of devotees, 
 voluntarily giving themselves up, from religious motives, to 
 a life of hardship and grovelling discomfort.* The pages of 
 Jerome resound with the praises of the many noble women, 
 whom he, like Ambrose at Milan, won over to this form of 
 superstitious devotion, and some of whom sought with him 
 a fitting environment for its cultivation amid the sacred 
 scenes of the Hoi)' Land. It was, in fact, the dominant 
 religious influence during the age of St Ninian, and its 
 * Epist. 24, -'De Obit. Paulina:." 
 
THE MONASTIC LIFE, IO9 
 
 more attractive side is glowini^ly and poeticall)- pictured b>- 
 Ambrose, whose fame may have drawn the young pilgrim 
 out of his way to Hsten to the great orator in Milan 
 Cathedral. The solitude and austerities of the cell did not, 
 indeed, always shut out " the wild passions of the world." The 
 security and quiet of a religious life attracted many of the 
 worthless, whose hypocrisy veiled their sloth or immorality. 
 Superstition increased as piety attached itself more and 
 more to formal observances. Relic worship became a 
 lucrative profession, and a scholar like Jerome could 
 thunder, in language more emphatic than classic, against 
 the protests of men like Vigilantius in favour of a more 
 spiritual devotion. Miracles happened naturally to those 
 so strongly influenced by the belief in, the expectation of 
 them, as were the monks. The men of taste of that age were 
 shocked at the puerile excesses to which piety often 
 degenerated, and loaded these devotees with their ridicule 
 " Behold," cried the poet Rutilianus, " Capraja rises before 
 me ! That isle is full of wretches, enemies of the light." 
 This reproach betrays the animus of the easy man of the 
 world. However contemptible their childish ideas, their 
 puerile formalism, many of the early monks added to an 
 austere piety the missionary spirit, and in some monasteries 
 they were combined with the love of knowledge. Those of 
 Southern Gaul, such as Lerins and St Victor, in the fifth 
 century, became the nurses of theological and philosophical 
 learning, and the seminaries in which the ablest bishops 
 and the most devout of the clergy received their training. 
 They took the place of the old pagan schools on the fall of 
 the Western Empire, and gave a new lease of life to know- 
 ledge by the earnest spirit which they infused into the 
 study of Christian theology and philosophy and the ancient 
 classic writers. 
 
 That Ninian had practical acquaintance with the nobler 
 traits of m.onastic life, — with at least its intense piety and its 
 missionary spirit, — we may infer from the fact of his con- 
 nection with St Martin. His consecration by the Pope* 
 
 * That it is by no means improbable we see from the fact that Palladius 
 was ordained by Pope Celestinus as missionary bishop of Ireland during the 
 lifetime of Ninian. 
 
no CULTURE IX EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 ma\- be an assumption of his twelfth-century biographer, 
 Aih'ed, and is all the more suspicious in that he does not give 
 the name of the Roman bishop who performed this function; 
 but his visit to the celebrated monastic Bishop of Tours, and 
 the deep impression it appears to have made, are evident 
 from the dedication of his church at Whithorn to this saint. 
 
 St Martin is an outstanding figure in the Church history 
 of the West during the latter half of the fourth century. 
 His life, as portrayed by the graphic and sympathetic pen 
 of Sulpicius Severus, is full of dramatic incident, but it is as 
 head of the monastic community of Marmoutier, which he 
 combined with his office as Bishop of Tours, that he has an 
 especial interest for us. 
 
 This establishment has an historic importance, for St 
 Martin was one of the first, if not the first, to introduce the 
 monastic rule into Gaul. In all probability it formed the 
 model of the institution which Xinian established at Candida 
 Casa, and which remained for more than a century a famous 
 seat of monastic learning and virtue. The close connection 
 of the British and Irish Churches in early times with that of 
 Gaul is a prominent fact in tradition. The community 
 which the bishop gathered around him at the secluded spot 
 underneath a cliff on the banks of the Loire, about two miles 
 from Tours, numbered eighty members. No one, according 
 to Sulpicius Severus,* possessed any private property, all 
 things being collected into a general fund. No one was 
 allowed to buy or sell an)-thing. Manual labour seems to 
 have been thought incompatible with the monkish ideal, 
 though it soon came, especially through the inspiration of 
 St Benedict, to be viewed as an indispensable aid to the 
 culture of the soul. " A labouring monk is troubled with 
 only one devil," said Cassiodorus, a centur\- later, " an idle 
 one by a host of them.' The art of writing is mentioned 
 as being practised by the younger members, however, while 
 their elders attended exclusively to religious exercises. The 
 intellectual tone could not have been very high, to judge 
 from the nervous and depreciative attitude of Sulpicius 
 towards the cla.ssics. No one scarcely ever left his cell 
 except at the call to united prayer. After the hour of 
 
 * "Vita Beali .Martini," c. vii. 
 
NINIAN AND ST MARTIN. Ill 
 
 fasting they partook of a common repast, at which wine 
 was eschewed, unless in case of sickness or infirmity. Their 
 clothing consisted of a rough garment of camels' hair — the 
 same for all, however refined their upbringing might have 
 been. The society of women was abjured.* But this 
 austere pursuit of mistaken perfection did not apparently 
 exclude the possibility of resuming an active life. Many 
 who distinguished themselves by the morbid intensity of 
 their piety were forced by the voice of the people from their 
 retirement to accept the episcopal staff, or to fill some 
 vacant church. 
 
 The year of St Martin's death is the one definite key to 
 the chronology of Ninian's life. Ailred has preserved the 
 tradition that on learning of the death of Martin, he dedi- 
 cated the church to him which he had just erected of stone 
 at Whithorn, and this is one of the few incidental touches 
 which strike me as expressive of fact in the rhetoric pro- 
 duction of the worthy abbot. Another is the remark that 
 he broug-ht with him from Tours the masons who built it. 
 This may be a mere inference from the practice of the 
 founders of the Anglo-Saxon monasteries in the seventh 
 and eighth centuries.! Moreover, Roman Britain could 
 not have been destitute of skilled artisans, nor was this, as 
 Ailred thought, the first stone structure in Britain dedicated 
 to the worship of Christ, though it was customary among 
 the natives to use wood instead of stone in building. The 
 Roman basilica was the model of Christian architecture 
 among the Romanised Britons, as in other parts of the 
 Western empire. On the other hand, the artisans of Gaul 
 were celebrated for their skill as early as the fourth century. :J: 
 The technical schools, established by Constantine in order 
 to arrest in the cities of Italy the decay of the arts, offered 
 a ready training to handicraftsmen, who found a field for 
 their industry in the less developed lands of the north. St 
 Martin made use of their skill in the erection of the 
 numerous churches which replaced the heathen temples. 
 
 * Sulpicius, " Dialog.,'' ii. 12. 
 
 t B£eda ("Vita Beatorum Abbatorum," sect. 5) tells us that Benedict 
 Biscop brought workmen from Gaul for the purpose of constructing the church 
 of the Abbey of Wearmouth, of which he was abbot. 
 
 X Baldwin Brown, " From Schola to Cathedral," p. 195. 
 
112 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 It would therefore be no anachronism to suppose that 
 Ninian really did bring a few of them with him on his 
 return to his native countr}-. Nor were there wanting 
 churches of imposing dimensions and rich decoration in some 
 of the Gaulish and Italian cities, probabl)- visited by Ninian, 
 to excite the ambition to imitate them. Though the 
 churches of Rome could not equal in splendour that erected 
 by Constantine at Jerusalem, or that of Paulinus at T\-re, 
 over which Eusebius grows eloquent, those of St Peter and 
 St John, of St Paul and St Prudentia, were imposing 
 examples of the style that grew out of the pagan basilica. 
 The gilded roofs, variously coloured marbles, rich mosaics, 
 and lofty columns of those at Lyons and Vienne excited 
 the admiration of Sidonius Apollinaris.* Doubtless in 
 Ninian's humbler effort on the shores of the remote Solway, 
 the thoughts inspired by these far more gorgeous produc- 
 tions of a triumphant Christianity would seek a not unambi- 
 tious, if still modest, expression. A small mission chapel, 
 it might make little impression on an eye familiar with the 
 splendid piles with which Roman skill had adorned the 
 province, but, as in the case of the earnestness of the rude 
 sculptures in the catacombs, compared with the more 
 superficial expression of far more pretentious examples of 
 Roman art, the little mission chapel embodied a great idea. 
 It was the expression of a spiritual impulse that was destined 
 to create a new art and a new literature — to produce the 
 great cathedrals of mediaeval times, to kindle the imagina- 
 tion of the artist, to add a new chord to the harp of bard 
 and scald. It was the emblem not mereh- of a new moral 
 strength, but of a new creative genius. Injustice, sensualism, 
 slavery, .selfishness, were the ideas too largely associated 
 with the splendour of Roman city and Roman mansion — 
 ideas which had jiroduced their natural withering effect 
 upon the human mind ; whereas the simple mission church 
 is the harbinger of the spirit of justice, brotherhood, and 
 progress. The movement it s)-mbolises is a conquering 
 movement, too. While the imperial power is balked by the 
 barbarians and finally overthrown ; while, baffled and effete, 
 it is about to abandon its conquests, the little mission 
 * Epist. xii. C/. Smith's " Dictionary of Antiquities," art. " Church." 
 
MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL DISORDER. II 3 
 
 chapel by the shore of the Solway is the emblem of a 
 spiritual empire, the forerunner of a dominion which will 
 win submission where imperial Rome has proved powerless. 
 The spot on which Xinian erected his church was, one 
 should think, ill chosen for the purpose of missionary enter- 
 prise. While its seclusion and its charming situation within 
 sight and sound of the sea, with the wild mountains of 
 Galloway in the distant background, were well fitted for the 
 pursuit of the monastic life, its isolation in the extreme 
 south-west of Scotland made it unsuitable for ac-eressive 
 work. There is a good deal of force, however, in the sup- 
 position* that he was influenced in its selection b\' the 
 unsettled state of the country between the Forth and the 
 Wall of Hadrian — the scene of frequent inroads during the 
 last decade of the fourth century and the first quarter of 
 the fifth. The age was, indeed, to all appearance, the most 
 unfavourable for such an enterprise as Xinian's. He lived 
 throughout the trying period of the fall of the imperial 
 power in Britain, and the carnage and disorder which 
 characterised it. It marks him out as a man of intense 
 fervour and commanding strength of character that he 
 accomplished so much for the higher culture of his country- 
 men, in spite of the adverse circumstances of the age. 
 During the last half of the fourth century the Picts were 
 joined in their inroads into the province by marauding 
 bands of Scots from Ireland, who infested the western coast, 
 and of Saxon pirates who attacked it from the east. The 
 energetic repression of a combined attack by them on the 
 northern district in 368! gained it tolerable security for 
 thirty years, but the pressure of invasion, with its accom- 
 panying scenes of outrage, had again made itself so severely 
 felt, owing to the withdrawal of the British troops to Gaul 
 by the usurper Maximus, and the weak government of the 
 island, that Stilicho, :;. the minister of Honorius, found it 
 necessary in 396 to send reinforcements to the aid of the 
 harassed provincials. The barbarians suffered a temporary 
 check, but the strong hand of the Emperor Theodosius (died 
 
 * Grub, '• Ecclesiastical History of Scotland," i., p. 13. 
 t Ammianus Marcellinus, xxvi. 4. 
 X Claudian, xxii. 250-253. 
 
 H 
 
114 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 395) was no longer there to avert the doom which the 
 incapable administration of his successors, Arcadius in the 
 East and Honorius in the West, invited at the hands of 
 their barbarian enemies. 
 
 The period of Ninian's activity was thus one of those 
 tragically dramatic periods which mark the turning points of 
 human history, — the period in which the old order of things 
 is shaken to its foundation, and the new comes to birth 
 amid the throes of war, accompanied by all the miseries of 
 social disintegration. Yet it is possible for a great spiritual 
 movement to maintain itself in circumstances so unfavour- 
 able to its development. Christianity had to win its way 
 to the conquest of the Roman empire in the face of the 
 fiercest opposition — over the path of intolerance and per- 
 secution. Nevertheless it triumphed, and in the aggressive 
 energy of St Martin we see what it could accomplish even 
 when its progress was hampered by the social and political 
 disorder to which Gaul, like Britain, was exposed at the 
 hands of the invader. The notion that a strong spiritual 
 culture is compatible only with leisure and peaceful sur- 
 roundings is not altogether founded in fact. " La Grece et 
 Rome," remarks M. Egger, " pour ne parler que des anciens, 
 ont \u fleurir tous les actes de I'esprit en temps de leur 
 plus cruclles dissensions."* That Ninian, like his great 
 model, St Martin, rose by the strength of a commanding 
 personality and a fervid faith above the circumstances of 
 his age, is evident from the hold which his memory took on 
 the traditions of his country, and the fame of his monastic 
 establishment at Candida Casa during the century that 
 followed his death. In after-times churches were dedicated 
 to him from Caithness to Cumberland, and while these can 
 afford no clue to his missionary wanderings, in the absence 
 of authentic evidence of any actual connection with their 
 patron, they at least justify the inference that the move- 
 ment, of which Ninian was the leader, was one that com- 
 manded attention, and merited remembrance. Considering 
 the uncertainty which hangs over these dim ages, and w hich 
 reduces the history of Scotland during several centuries to 
 a limited number of facts, — interspersed with many learned 
 • Egtjer, " La I.itciature a Athene pendant la Guerre." 
 
ninian's activity. 115 
 
 guesses, — this is saying a good deal, yet not too much. 
 There was no doubt in the twelfth century a tendency to 
 exaggerate the importance of Ninian's labours; and Ailred 
 is altogether out of touch with fact when he represents 
 the saint as ordaining presbyters, consecrating bishops, 
 distributing all manner of ecclesiastical dignities, and 
 dividing the whole of Pictland into parishes.* This is a 
 glaring anachronism of at least six centuries, and proves 
 that the good abbot had studied history to very little pur- 
 pose indeed. But the much earlier and far more reliable 
 testimony of Baida, though less detailed, and consequently 
 more trustworthy, — on the principle, of which there are so 
 many illustrations in the historians of mediaeval and ancient 
 times, that the knowledge of an event always loses in bulk 
 the nearer the author to the time of its occurrence, — is 
 equally emphatic as to the success of his preaching among 
 the wild tribes as far north as the range of the Mounth. 
 As in the case of St Martin in Gaul, and that of Patrick 
 in Ireland, he would have to disarm the opposition of the 
 magicians of the pagan cult, and, as in their cases too, the 
 charm of a powerful personality and an irresistible earnest- 
 ness, combined with a sagacity that knew how to take 
 advantage of the situation, proved superior to the magic of 
 the Druid, and makes the phenomenal success probable 
 and credible. He would doubtless seek to render it per- 
 manent by stationing Christian teachers from the monas- 
 tery at Whithorn in certain districts ; and though his death 
 seems to have been followed by a widespread relapse of 
 his Picti.sh converts! into paganism, his mission must have 
 had, for the time being, the political and social effect 
 of granting the population south of the wall a respite 
 from the harassing attacks of their hereditary enemies. 
 There is ample proof in the life of St Martin alone that 
 the Christian bishops of this time had already acquired 
 much political influence, which they used, not for self- 
 aggrandising purposes, but in the service of a humane 
 patriotism. Political offenders found in them powerful 
 advocates of merciful treatment. Ambrose exacted a 
 
 * " Vita Niniani," c. 6 (" Historians of Scotland." v.). 
 
 t Patrick speaks, in his " Epistle to Coroticus," of "the apostate Picts." 
 
Il6 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 humiliating penance from Theodosius at the door of the 
 cathedral of Milan for the massacre of the inhabitants of 
 Thessalonica ; and that the Church dignitaries, and even the 
 monks, were closely in touch with the stirring age in which 
 they lived is shown by the keen interest of a Jerome, who, 
 from his retreat at Bethlehem, kept his watchful e)'e on the 
 march of events throughout the empire, and has even noted 
 the state of Britain. Skene supposes that the mission of 
 Ninian to the southern Picts was actuated by a desire to 
 alleviate the miseries of invasion, to which the inhabitants 
 of the Roman territory between the walls were exposed. 
 The facts I have mentioned make it probable that such a 
 political motive was mingled with the missionary zeal that 
 alone would account for it. At all events, I am inclined 
 to attribute to it the remarkable fact that, on the fall of the 
 imperial power, the Picts did not permanently overrun the 
 northern part of the province within their reach, as the 
 barbarians from beyond the Rhine and the Danube did 
 the other parts of the empire. As before, the wall of 
 Antonine remained their southern boundary, if we except a 
 small settlement on the southern shore of the Forth, between 
 the Pentlands and the river Carron. The power that 
 helped to stem the tide of barbarism, and thus powerfully 
 alleviated the miseries of the age, was the spiritual fervour, 
 the human sympathy, the dauntless enthusiasm, that pulsed 
 in the monkish cell by the shore of the Sol way. A striking 
 illustration of what can be accomplished by a strong- 
 minded and fervent personality to maintain the cause of 
 Christianity, and make its power felt in the political salva- 
 tion, as well as the instruction of a people at such a time of 
 disorder, is afforded by the labours of Severinus, who up 
 to his death in 4S2 was, for thirty years, the adviser and 
 leader of the inhabitants of Noricum, during the attacks to 
 which they were exposed from the barbarians.* 
 
 Apart from its political significance, and viewed as a 
 practical inspiration, I estimate highly a mission such as 
 that of St Ninian. It was an immeasurable advance upon 
 the pagan cult, were it onl)- in its more spiritual idea of 
 
 * See Riezler, " Geschichte Baierns," Bd. i. ; f/. Rettberg, " Kirchen 
 Geschichte Deutschlands," sect. 34. 
 
ITS PRACTICAL INSPIRATION. II7 
 
 God, and in its appeal to the moral sense. It brought 
 home the fact of duty for the love of God, the fact that 
 has begotten the noblest deeds in the histor)- of the race. 
 Paijanism was limited at best b\- nature, and with all the 
 poetic transfigurations of its marvellous phenomena, with 
 all its childish susceptibilit}' to the thought of the super- 
 natural, it was as far from the great spiritual realit}' as the 
 realistic world of the child is from the higher conceptions 
 of the reasoning man. It is easy to sneer at Christianitv 
 as a popular superstition, which, unfortunately for the pro- 
 gress of the world, it has too largel}- been ; but it has 
 unquestionably come to millions as a revelation of the 
 divine, inasmuch as it has elevated the mind to higher 
 conceptions of the divine power that man cannot but recog- 
 nise, however imperfect!}-. God is spirit — that is the fact, 
 and Christianit}^ has taught it with forcible emphasis to 
 those whom philosophy could not have taught. Stoicism, 
 with its transcendental doctrine, failed to catch the popular 
 ear ; modern science, with its god of force, is still an enigma 
 to the common man, and he must be a prejudiced mortal 
 that will not recognise that Christianity these eighteen 
 centuries has succeeded, in some measure, in impressing on 
 the consciences of men the eternal fact of the spiritual 
 Power that makes for righteousness, and in inspiring the 
 mart}T spirit that would dare life itself for its sake. It is 
 not the metaphysical deity of theology that has rendered 
 this service to humanity. Metaphysics and missions have 
 little connection with each other. Doubtless Ninian brought 
 a theology with him to these northern regions — the ortho- 
 dox creed that had at that time triumphed in the West, and 
 still exacts the allegiance of modern Europe. But it was 
 not because of its orthodoxy that it triumphed, but because 
 of its power to elevate the mind, and captivate the affec- 
 tions. Stoicism could have claimed in many respects as 
 high a rank as Christianity, but it wanted its inspiration. 
 Not as a theologian, but as a Christian, does the missionary 
 succeed. Yet it is of moment, from the point of view of 
 culture, to inquire what the ideas were that gave soul to the 
 movement of which Ninian was the leader. In the writings 
 of St Patrick— a native of North Britain, and, if not inspired 
 
Il8 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 at least indirectly by his teaching, at any rate moulded like 
 him by Gaulish influences, if not in direct touch with Rome 
 — we may safely perceive their likeness. In his " Con- 
 fession," which the best authorities receive as authentic, we 
 find the belief in the Trinity without the metaphysical 
 language of the creed. In the hymns ascribed to him, there 
 is the same simple and unquestioning faith in the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in the outstanding doctrines 
 of the Christian system, in the providential protection of 
 God against the forces of nature and the snares of paganism, 
 and in the sufficiency of Christ amid all the experiences of 
 life. A tradition of very ancient date * contains the sub- 
 stance of^lis message to the wondering pagan. " Who is 
 God ? " ask the fair daughters of Laoghaire of the holy 
 man, whom they found, with his following of clerics, at the 
 fountain where they went to bathe. " Is He fair to look 
 upon, and ever living? Is His abode in heaven or on 
 earth, in the sea, the rivers, the mountains, the valleys ? 
 Tell us how we may find Him, and love Him?" "Our 
 God," replied the saint, '" is the God of all men, of heaven 
 and earth, the sea and the rivers, the sun, the moon, and all 
 the stars, the high mountains, and the lonely valleys, the 
 God who inspireth, quickeneth, and sustaineth all things, 
 &c. ; who hath a Son co-eternal and co-equal with Him- 
 self, and in them the Holy Ghost breatheth, and they three 
 are undivided. And to this heavenly King, ye, the daugh- 
 ters of an earthly king, may be united, if ye will believe." 
 " Teach us most diligently," they reply, " how we may 
 believe in the heavenly King." And Patrick said, " Believe 
 ye that by baptism ye put off the sin of your father and 
 mother? Believe ye in repentance after sin, in life after 
 death, in resurrection at the da>' of judgment, in the unity 
 of the Church ? " To all which they answered, " We 
 believe." And they were baptized, and a white garment 
 put upon their heads, and desiring to see Christ, they 
 received the Eucharist, and, singular sequel,! slept in 
 death. 
 
 * Todd, >' St Patrick," p. 455. 
 
 t Some have thought that this implies human sacrifice — a remnant of 
 paganism. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF SUPERSTITION. I 19 
 
 The Church of St Ninian was, we may with certainty 
 believe, not above the superstition of the age. Centuries 
 have elapsed, and the Christian world of to-day is still 
 largely coloured by it. The monkish spirit already revelled 
 in miracles, relic-worship, and abstinence— in those earnest 
 puerilities that govern the imagination and degrade the 
 intellect. Jovinian had raised his voice in vain against the 
 spirit of superstition which distorted the Christian view of 
 life. One of his assertions, that marriage was as meritorious 
 as virginity, brought upon him the bitter hostility of Pope 
 Siricus, whose emissaries roused the ire of Theodosius and 
 the Archbishop of Milan, Ambro.se, against "the pestiferous 
 sect" of which he was the leader. A synod, convened at his 
 instigation and presided over by Ambrose, banished him 
 from the northern capital. The pages of Sulpicius Severus, 
 to cite another example, are steeped in the grossest credu- 
 lity. His book on the " Life and Miracles of St Martin" 
 was one of the most popular productions of the fifth century. 
 It must have been as eagerly read in Britain as in other 
 countries of the West and throughout Egypt, Syria, 
 Ethiopia, India, Persia, Arminia, and Greece.* Hermits 
 sent from the far East the earnest request for more of this 
 edifying reading, and the author acceded to it by writing a 
 supplement in three dialogues. He was an honest man, 
 who " would rather keep silent than utter what is false," 
 and he received his information at first hand, for he was one 
 of the intimate disciples of the bishop. He was no con- 
 temptible chronicler either, as his valuable history of the 
 world from the creation to his own day shows. He chal- 
 lenges, too, the sceptics of his time to dispute his facts. 
 He might fearlessly do so on the strength of the tendency 
 of the age, to which miracles came as naturally as the air 
 that men breathed. The resolute bearing and fervent 
 faith of a St Martin could not escape the honour of 
 this species of fame. It is as easy for the uncultured 
 devotee in an age of prodigies to see a miracle as 
 it is for the philosophic mind to perceive its natural 
 explanation. Christianity, it must be confessed, rather 
 tended to foster than to discourage this tendency of its 
 
 * Tillemont, Mem., torn. x. , pp. 309-357. 
 
I20 CULTURE IX EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 credulous converts. Had Xinian had tlie fortune to have 
 a Sulpicius Severus for his biographer, his pages would 
 doubtless likewise have been enlivened with numerous tales 
 of contests with demons, of heavenly radiances illumining 
 the praying saint, of visions and portents, of miraculous 
 cures and conversions, and even of the revival of the dead. 
 Ailrcd is not sparing of stories of this kind, but the\' are 
 taken from the common stock of the mediaeval hagiolocjist. 
 and want the valuable historic and topographical traits, 
 which lend a high value to those that make the narrative of 
 a Sulpicius Severus or an Adamnan instructive as well as 
 dramatic. 
 
 The above supposititious biographer would in all likeli- 
 hood have placed his death somewhere in the second quarter 
 of the fifth century. The date is forgotten, while his memory 
 and its significance, which I have tried in illustrative 
 fashion to portray, have survived. 
 
TRANSFORMATION. 121 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TWO CENTURIES OF CLAIR-OBSCURE. 
 
 WHILE the Germanic invaders from beyond the 
 Rhine and the Danube swept over Gaul in the be- 
 ginninij of the fifth centurx' with resistless force, 
 overturning at the first shock the fabric of Roman power, 
 which the genius of Caesar had founded five centuries before, 
 the conquest of Roman Britain by the Saxon was both 
 more gradual and less complete. A long interval of fierce 
 struggle, of frightful disorder, intervened before the imperial 
 province was transformed into a number of petty Saxon 
 states, reaching from the Forth to the Channel, and the 
 Celtic kingdom of the Cymry on the west. Whilst trying 
 to grope through this shadowy period we still feel to some 
 extent in touch with the old Roman culture. In revolting 
 against the corruption and tyranny of the imperial officials 
 and driving their taskmasters beyond the sea,* the British 
 provincials did not repudiate the civilisation which for about 
 three hundred and fifty years had asserted its influence. 
 The ancient British culture had undoubtedly perpetuated 
 itself among the tribes inhabiting the west and north-west 
 — Cornwall, Wales, Galloway. It had, however, been con- 
 siderably modified by the influence of Roman law and 
 Christianity, and it would be wide of the truth to conclude 
 that the assertion of independence by these tribes was fol- 
 lowed by a relapse into prehistoric barbarism.! Such a 
 conclusion is highly improbable, considering the protracted 
 hold of Roman rule on the Britons, and tradition has pre- 
 served in the Roman genealogy of many of the names 
 that bulk in bardic tale, a striking testimony of this 
 Roman influence.:]: Cunedda, for instance, a name asso- 
 
 * Zosimus, lib. vi. 376-383. 
 
 + Skene, "Celtic Scotland," iii., p. 114; cf. Montalembert, iii., p. 
 II, and Freeman, "Norman Conquest," i. 19. 
 
 j See Skene, " Four Ancient Books of Wales," ii., p. 455 ; cf. " Celtic 
 Scot.," iii. 102, 103. 
 
122 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 elated with the north of the province, and one of the post- 
 Roman traditional leaders of the Britons, was the son of 
 ^■Eternus, and grandson of Paternus.* The same fact 
 appears in " The Descent of the Men of the North," a tale 
 to which Skene attributes an early date, while up to the 
 commencement of the tenth century the kings of Strath- 
 clyde claimed kin with Roman ancestors. Patrick speaks 
 of Coroticus, the savage British chief, who, about the middle 
 of the fifth century, led a plundering band to Ireland as "no 
 longer fellow-citizens of pious Romans but of demons." In 
 the cities and fertile tracts where the Roman settler and the 
 Romanised Briton were to be found, the laws and institu- 
 tions, the language, literature, and art of Rome wielded 
 supreme sway, and continued to exist far on into those two 
 centuries of ever-increasing barbarism. Even so vigorous 
 an advocate as Freeman of the view that " the English 
 wiped out everything Celtic and everything Roman," admits 
 the probability that " within the English frontier there still 
 were Roman towns, tributary to the conquerors rather than 
 occupied by them."t The remark of Gildas;): about Britain 
 still bearing the Roman name, but casting off her institutes, 
 has reference only to the action of usurpers like Maximus, 
 plentiful in number, who aspired to the imperial dignity in 
 defiance of constituted authority. The letter of Honorius in 
 410 to the cities of Britain, admonishing them to take upon 
 themselves the conduct of their own affairs, implies the con- 
 tinuance of municipal government. And though the fierce 
 Saxon exterminated or enslaved his foes, and only that 
 part of the old province ultimately remained to the ancient 
 population which was more Celtic than Roman in character, 
 there are traces in the Anglo-Saxon language, usages, and 
 ]aws§ of that culture whose monuments were so largely 
 sacrificed to the ferocity of the invader. " Our municipal 
 institutions of the present day are all on the Roman model. 
 
 * Rhys, " Celtic IJritain," p. iiS. 
 
 t "Norman Conquest, "" i. 15; ,/ .Stubl)s, "Constitutional History of 
 linglaml," i., pp. 2 and 3, who admits that '" Roman civilisation perished 
 sluwly in the midst of a perishing people." 
 
 + " Mist.," sect. 13 (Giles' edit, and trans.), 
 
 § See Coote, " Komans of Britain." 
 
CONTINUITY OF ROMAN CULTURE. 1 23 
 
 It suited the political genius of the Anglo-Saxons so well that 
 they at once adapted themselves to it. . . . Some of the 
 continental municipalities near the centre of power — Flor- 
 ence, Marseilles, Cologne — have probably enjoyed uninter- 
 rupted the rights they held under the Caisars." * The world 
 empire disappeared, and the mighty city, so long the law- 
 giver, the mistress of races the most diverse, the most 
 remote, at last experienced, at the hands of an Alaric and a 
 Genseric, the dishonour of conquest, by which she had com- 
 pelled allegiance to her power. Everywhere throughout 
 the west barbarism becomes sooner or later supreme, but 
 even then the genius that had created the fabric of Roman 
 culture is superior to the barbarian strength that rushes in 
 with irresistible strength from the forests of Germany and 
 conquers it in its turn. In the new forms that after cen- 
 turies of revolution emerged from the ruins of the old 
 empire, the trace of this conquest is not difficult to follow, 
 and at the end of the nineteenth century the laws and 
 the language of some of the highly civilised nations of 
 Europe are still, to some extent, the living monuments of it. 
 The comparison which Montalembert makes between the 
 modern Briton and the ancient Roman is too limited. " The 
 English race," he says, " has inherited the pride as well as 
 the grandeur of that Roman people, of which it is the rival 
 and the heir." t The inheritance is a far more organic one 
 than that. It is true that the arts, language, and religion 
 of Rome were all brought back again at a later time and in 
 a corrupted form, and that it is to the Norman Conquest 
 that we owe much of the Roman influence in the constitu- 
 tion and customs of the England of a later date, but I can- 
 not believe, from my opinion of the indelible mark of 
 Roman culture in Britain, that the laws, language, and muni- 
 cipal institutions of Roman Britain " perished utterly," as 
 one of our greatest English historians would have it, :|: and 
 that they were not absorbed in some degree by the invaders, 
 or maintained their influence among the tribes that defied 
 behind their mountains the attacks of the Saxon. The old 
 
 * Burton, " History of Scotland," i., pp. 69, 70. 
 
 t " Monks of the West," iii., p. 6. 
 
 X Freeman, "Norman Conquest." i. 15. 
 
124 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 British Church was for several centuries longer identical with 
 the Church of Gaul and Italy in the fourth century. Nor 
 can I believe that a civilisation over three centuries old 
 was doomed to utter destruction by the furious onslaught 
 of barbarians, who, by remaining in the country, were 
 necessarily affected by new influences. The fact that there 
 was a long struggle to be recorded by the bard and the 
 monkish chronicler, is in favour of the view that the con- 
 quest was not all on one side. The question of the disap- 
 pearance of the Latin language has not been settled yet, if 
 we are to listen to Mr Coote and Professor Rhys. There 
 is reason, too, to believe that the Roman military system, in 
 some of its features, continued to be at least partiall\- 
 retained by the provincials.* And just as we cannot assume 
 that three hundred years of British rule, say in South Africa, 
 would not leave permanent effects on the subordinate 
 population, no more can we represent the case diffcrenth' 
 to ourselves in the transition from Roman Britain to Saxon 
 England and Scotland. 
 
 The chief source of our knowledge of this period of 
 struggle with a cruel and barbarous invader, during which 
 the old Roman culture was largely, though b>- no means 
 wholl}-, subverted hy the new forms of Teutonic barbarism, 
 is the gloomy work of Gildas, " Concerning the Destruction 
 of Britain."! He was evidently a Romanised Britain, born 
 within a hundred years after the fall of the imperial power. 
 The year of his birth, he tells us, was that of the battle of 
 Badon, by which the Britons succeeded in checking for a 
 time the encroachments of the Saxon, and which, according 
 to the " Annales Cambriae," was fought in 516. Four 
 different accounts of his life have been preserved, but they 
 are all of much later date than the sixth centur}-. One of 
 his biographers makes him a native of Clydesdale.:^: If this 
 
 * Rhys, "Celtic Britain," pp. 102-111. 
 
 t The " Historia Britonum,"' attributed to Nennius (ninth century), con- 
 tains little more, except the notice of the mission of .St Germanus to Britain, than 
 what (iildas relates. The additions have a traditional character. His facts 
 are often mendacious. Ba.'da reproduces Gildas mostly. The '• PrKfatio 
 Gilda' de I'ocnitentia," ascribed to Clildas, is very like in style, and ascetic 
 cnoujjh in s[)irit to be his. 
 
 X .Skene, however, takes the " Regio Arccluta " to mean the Vale of Clywd 
 in North \\'ales. 
 
GILDAS. 125 
 
 be so, he must have spent his early days in the region with 
 which tradition associates the birth of another outstanding 
 figure in the history of this shadowy period, St Patrick, who 
 was carried thence at the age of eighteen as a slave to Ireland, 
 the land of his subsequent missionary labours. But he 
 displays a very vague acquaintance with the geography of 
 the north,* and evidently wrote his History in Brittany, 
 where he appears as the founder of the celebrated monastery 
 of Ruys — one of those numerous British exiles who sought 
 a refuge from the pitiless ferocity of the Saxon on the 
 opposite coast of Armorica, and spread the benefits of 
 Christian civilisation from their monastic settlements among 
 its still pagan inhabitants.! His narrative bears a general 
 character, and he only refers more particularly to the 
 condition of the northern part of the province when noticing 
 the inroads of the Picts and Scots after the departure of the 
 legion, which was twice sent from abroad to the assistance 
 of the harassed provincials. Still, the glimpses which he 
 gives of the general condition of the province during the 
 long period of conflict and social misery that intervened 
 between the cessation of Roman rule and the latter part of 
 the sixth century, embrace the old Valentia in common 
 with other portions of Roman Britain. The picture which 
 he paints in such dark, realistic colours, though wanting in 
 detail of treatment, is invaluable, as coming from the hand 
 of a spectator of the state of things which he depicts. 
 Gildas evidently spent a part of his life in Britain as a 
 religious leader of great eminence. He is a prominent 
 figure in the traditions referring to this time. The visit of 
 Irish devotees to Wales to obtain from him spiritual 
 instruction and advice, as well as his reputed connection 
 with Ireland as the reviver of the work of Patrick, prove 
 this. Nor was the reputation of the writer unknown to 
 men of historic importance who lived during, or within 
 reasonable proximity of, his age. Columbanus, a partial 
 contemporary, mentions "Gildas Auctor " in one of his 
 epistles,+ and Alcuin praises him as the wisest of the 
 Britons. His production is, therefore, the work of a well- 
 
 * Cf. " Hist.," sects. 3, 17, 21. + Montalembert, ii. 260. 
 
 X Ad S. Greg. Pap. 
 
126 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 known historic personage, not of a doubtful, obscure writer, 
 and its authenticit)- may be accepted without further 
 question. Nor need we hesitate to regard it as, in the 
 main, a true, though all too hasty, delineation of an other- 
 wise dim period. Mistakes there are, but it docs not merit 
 the very depreciating accusations of its most recent critic,* 
 as " full of glaring contradictions," a charge also levelled 
 against his copyists, Ba^da and Nennius. Another writer i 
 infers from the excessive depreciation of the Britons that 
 the work is but a caricature of a losing race from the pen 
 of some malignant enemy. Such a conclusion is not 
 warranted in view of the character which Gildas so per- 
 sistently reveals. Many of the literary productions of this 
 age, like those of Salvian and Gregory of Tours, display 
 the same pessimistic touch. The fervent austerity of the 
 religious devotee, the captiousness, the unbending spirit of 
 the cloister, appear in ever)' page. The monk of Ru\-s 
 views his war-convulsed native land from the rocky shore 
 of Armorica with the impassioned eye of the Hebrew 
 prophet, and if his philippic against the degenerate morals 
 of his countrymen is coloured by the fanatic rigour of his 
 own piety, we must not forget that the legacy which Rome 
 bequeathed to the victims of her t}Tann)' and misgovern- 
 ment was the legacy of an enervated public and social life. 
 Though turgid and gloomy to excess, the narrative 
 possesses the traits of a story told by a contemporary, in 
 contrast to the laboured productions of the forger or the 
 traditional chronicler. We find none of the fantastic tales, 
 the patriotic lore, with which the bard of a later time gave 
 epic form to the fancied deeds of the past. There is no 
 romance, but an intense and gloomy realism. The tales of 
 Arthur and his battles, of Cunedda and his kingdom, 
 which lend a patriotic relief to the Historia of Nennius 
 three centuries afterwards, as well as those fruits of the later 
 Celtic muse, or of the hagiological industry' of media;\al 
 times, which are such a weariness and constant provocation 
 to the student of our early culture, are still enclosed in the 
 womb of the future. There is, too, the vivid remembrance 
 of a mighty past which the writer sees disappearing from 
 * Du Chaillu, " Viking Age," i. 25. t M 01 ley. 
 
•'DESTRUCTION." 127 
 
 his view, though so many echoes of it still tarry, and the 
 respect for its worldly grandeur has evidently not been 
 quenched by the austerity of a monkish devotion.* Though 
 he rates his fellow -countr\-mcn for their degenerate 
 manners with that vigour of epithet, which is characteristic 
 of the religious prophet of his age, there were doubtless 
 many who shared this sentiment as they beheld the 
 impressive monuments of a fallen antiquity. 
 
 " The subject of my complaint,' he gloomil}- warns his 
 
 reader, " is the general destruction of everything that is 
 
 good, and the creneral growth of evil throughout the land."t 
 
 The description of the excesses committed by the Saxon 
 
 forms a grim illustration of this melancholy reflection, and 
 
 though pitched in the most tragic key, is in harmony with 
 
 the evil reputation which these pagan German tribes 
 
 enjoyed in the ancient world. Salvian distinguishes their 
 
 ferocity among the bad qualities which he ascribes to the 
 
 various barbarian nations, and Orosius and Ammianus 
 
 Marcellinus speak of their unshrinking bravery and the fury 
 
 of their sudden attacks. Unaffected by Christianity or the 
 
 civilisation of Rome, these savage hordes from the banks 
 
 of the Elbe and the Frisian marshes, who had long directed 
 
 their piratic expeditions^ against the coast towns of Gaul 
 
 and Britain, turned on the provincials with whom they 
 
 had entered into a dangerous alliance against the Pictish 
 
 marauders, and desolated the more accessible parts of the 
 
 province with fire and sword. The dominant instinct of 
 
 such an invader is destruction, and the levelled cities, 
 
 whose fallen monuments and buildings were dyed with 
 
 the blood of their butchered inhabitants, the pillaged 
 
 churches, the murder of the priests at the altar, the desolate 
 
 homesteads and fields, from which the husbandmen had 
 
 fled, the crowds of forlorn fugitives who sought refuge in 
 
 the woods and mountains, form the first effects ol the 
 
 arrival of some fresh band, seeking a settlement in the more 
 
 fertile tracts along the eastern coast.slj Partial extermination, 
 
 * Sect. 4 ; cf. 24. t Sect. i. 
 
 X Skene has pointed out that there were Saxon settlements on the east 
 coast of what is now the Lowlands of Scotland at an early date. 
 
 § Gildas, sect. 24; cf. Bceda, " Eccl. Hist.," i.. c. 15; " Chron. Anglo- 
 Sax.," ann. 490. 
 
128 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 followed by the slavery of those who obtained a taruy 
 quarter, going hand in hand with the demolition* of 
 many of the splendid remains of Roman energy and 
 luxury — this was undoubtedly the doom of those parts 
 of the province on which the first weight of invasion 
 fell. But the paucity of the numbers and the gradual 
 arrival of these savage immigrants, as well as the spirit 
 of the less enervated Celtic population, enabled the pro- 
 vincials, under leaders like Aurclius .Ambrosius, to check 
 their progress, and for nearly a century the fierce struggle 
 for supremacy went on, with varying advantage on either 
 side.t and endinir in the Celtic remnant of the west estab- 
 lishing an independence, which bade defiance to the attempts 
 of their hereditary enemies to shatter it, and onl\- \-ieldcd 
 to the supremacy of the Norman. 
 
 But the successful resistance to the invader in the west 
 did not bring in its immediate train that inspiration of an 
 elevating patriotism which has so often lent a renewing 
 impetus to the higher culture of a people. The evil effects 
 of Roman misgovernment long showed themselves in the 
 disorganisation, the internal disunion, the want of creative 
 power which deepened the miseries of an unsettled age. 
 The idea of unity, which the imperial administration had 
 taught its subjects with such implacable persistence, lost its 
 force when the power to maintain it had disappeared. The 
 military leaderships soon gave place to the assumption of 
 kingly power, and the struggles of rival chiefs for supremacy 
 increased the disorder and miser)' occasioned by the 
 invader. The suspension of hostilities which followed a 
 victory over the barbarian, like that of Badon,| was fre- 
 quently the signal for the outbreak of civil commotion. 
 " When our foreign wars cease, our ci\il troubles still 
 remain," laments the monk of Ru\-s. In the traditional 
 account of the battle of Arderyd, which Skene vij locates at 
 the modern Arthuret in Liddesdale, fought between 
 Gwendolen and Rydderch Hael (certainl)- an historic figure, 
 
 * This was the case, to some extent, oven in Gaul, where the establishment 
 of barbarian supremacy was not of so sanguinary a character. 
 + Sect. 26. 
 
 :;: Skene rather audaciously places the site in Linlithgowshire. 
 § " Four Ancient Books of Wales,"' i., c. 10. 
 
LAWLESSNESS AND INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 1 29 
 
 as he is mentioned by Adamnan), we have an example of 
 this strug^gle for supremacy in the northern part of what 
 was once the Roman province. Stability of government was 
 impossible, where the assertion of selfish ambition, not the 
 pursuit of the public good, was the chief aim of those in 
 power. " Kings were anointed, not according to God's 
 ordinance, but such as showed themselves more cruel than 
 the rest, and soon after they were put to death by those 
 who had elected them, without any inquir}- into their 
 merits, but because others still more cruel were chosen to 
 succeed them." The charges of murder, immorality, and 
 sacrilege, which Gildaa hurls against those of his own time, 
 five of whom he mentions b}- name, are doubtless coloured 
 b\- the dark hues of a morbid fancy ; but there are not 
 wanting many such examples of lawlessness and excess in 
 the pages of contemporary historians, like Gregory of Tours, 
 who has left to posterity a sombre picture of the brutality, 
 the lust, the inhumanity of the Prankish kings of the sixth 
 century. The figure of a Mailcun or a Vortipere, blackened 
 b}' crimes and vices which throw a sinister light on the 
 profession of Christianity associated with them, is no in- 
 credible phenomenon in the age of a Chilperic and a Brun- 
 hilda. The character which St Patrick, in his "Epistle to 
 Coroticus," draws of this lawless British king is in harmony 
 with the prototype of the immoral tyrant in the pages of 
 Gildas. 
 
 It would be vain to look for a high general intellectual 
 culture among a people, so much exposed alike to the 
 menace of invasion, the danger of extermination, and 
 the strife of ambition and faction. The knowledge of the 
 ancient language of Rome gradually died away, leaving its 
 trace in the rude tongue of the Saxon, which supplanted it 
 in the Romanised districts, and in the Cymric, which had 
 survived the imperial occupation, and still lingers in the 
 dialects of Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany. It is charac- 
 teristic of the sepulchral monuments, bearing Latin inscrip- 
 tions, and belonging to this period of transition from a 
 purely Roman culture to that of the Saxon and Celtic 
 populations, that divided the inheritance of the imperial 
 province, that the later examples, like the Catstone on the 
 
 I 
 
130 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 banks of the Almond, near Edinburgh, or the slab at 
 Yarrow Kirk, in Selkirkshire, show unmistakable evidence 
 of deterioration. " The more nearly we approach to the 
 purely Roman period," sa>-s Dr Anderson,* "the more 
 purely Roman become the style and character of the inscrip- 
 tion, the less debased are its grammar, its idiom, and its 
 letters, and the more perfectly legible its undefaced texts." 
 The same mark of deterioration appears in this class of 
 monuments over the whole range of the Roman provinces 
 after the fall of the empire, indicating, suggesti\'cl}' at least, 
 the decay of the culture associated with the remains of a 
 classic antiquit\-.t The same influences that led to the 
 decay of the old language of the Romanised provincials 
 were equall}' unfavourable to the literary monuments of the 
 Roman period. Gildas bewails the loss of " the records and 
 writings of my country, which have been consumed in the 
 fires of the enemy or have accompanied my e.xiled country- 
 men into distant lands." In composing his history he was 
 compelled to make use of the works of Continental writers, 
 and the range of his quotations or inferences shows that 
 the library of the monastery of Ruys must have contained 
 the writings of Eusebius, Ignatius, Polycarp, Basil, and 
 other Christian authors — a circumstance not without some 
 significance also for the literary culture of the British 
 Church of his age. The fact, however, that Christianity 
 asserted itself among the Celtic tribes of the west and 
 north-west all through this long period of conflict and dis- 
 organisation, is a guarantee of the e.xistence of a certain 
 salutary influence upon the intellectual life of the people. 
 The pagan Saxon showed no respect for church or monas- 
 tery, and forced their inmates to seek safet\- in c.xilc ; but 
 amid all their crimes and brutality, the Celtic chiefs, like 
 the Prankish kings, had their hours of penitence or super- 
 stitious devotion, if we may trust the lives of the Welsh 
 saints, and the names of Uubricius, Iltud, David, Cadoc, and 
 other sixth-ccntur\' founders of monasteries, like Bangor 
 
 * "Scotland in Early Christian Times," 2ncl Series, pp. 246, 247. 
 
 t Only the two inscriptions at Kirkmadrine, in the neiglihourhood of 
 Ninian's establishment at Candida Casa, which mark the graves of the priests 
 Vivenlius and .Majorius, come near to the style of imperial times. 
 
THE EARLIEST SCOTTISH UNIVERSITY. 131 
 
 or Llancarvan, remind us that we must not al\va}'s take too 
 literally the sombre assertions of the monk of Ruys. It is 
 told of Cadoc that he was an enthusiastic admirer of Virgil, 
 and his fondness for this author brought on him the censure 
 of Gildas.* The "Triads" profess to contain a number of his 
 poetic aphorisms. The schools of Christian instruction 
 under such leaders — combining the culture of the mind 
 with that of the soul — must have exerted a considerable 
 influence upon the rampant barbarism that had played 
 havoc with the old Roman culture. In the north, the 
 monastic institution of Candida Casa undoubtedly flourished 
 for over a century under the successors of Ninian, if not so 
 much as a missionary centre, as a seat of the Christian 
 instruction of an earlier time. I delight to think of it as 
 the Lerins or St Victor of the North, and to turn to the 
 ruins of Whithorn for the site of our earliest Scottish Uni- 
 versity. Irish tradition, which authorities like Dr Skene f 
 accept as authentic, j has preserved the echo of its fame, 
 under the names of Magnum Monasterium and Rosnat, as 
 a resort for the fervid student from the north of Ireland 
 and the youth of the ancient Valentia. Cairnech,§ whom 
 the " Pictish Chronicle " calls " the first martyr and the first 
 monk of Erin," Endeus, Tighernac, and Eugenius — all of 
 them founders of monasteries in their native Ireland, which 
 w^as destined, through its monkish missionaries, to wield 
 for two centuries an incisive influence on the culture of 
 Western Europe — were all educated in its humble cloisters. 
 Might not these venerable ruins put forth a just claim to 
 the credit of having, along with the monasteries of Brittany 
 and Wales, given birth to that intellectual and missionary 
 inspiration, which was to make Ireland the Greece of 
 Western Europe north of the Alps for several centuries? 
 By one of those singular turns of history, Columba himself 
 was at least indirectly indebted to Candida Casa, from the 
 fact that Finnian, the first abbot of the celebrated monastic 
 school of Maghbile, whose disciple he was, enjoyed for 
 
 * Montalembert, iii., p. 69. t "Celtic Scotland," ii. 47, 48. 
 
 'X.See my "Ninian und sein Einfluss auf die Ausbreitung des Christenthums 
 in Nord-Britannien " (Heidelberg und London), pp. 37, 38. 
 
 § " The Legend of Cairnech " makes him son of Sarran, a king of the 
 Britons, and abbot of the monastery of Martin, evidently Candida Casa. 
 
132 CULTURK IN KARI.V SCOTLAND. 
 
 several }-ear.s the benefit of the teaching of Mugentius. As 
 the author of a Latin praj'er, which has been preserved, the 
 latter ma)' claim to be the father of Scottish ecclesiastical 
 literature. It forms a touching expression of deep con- 
 trition, and the remarks of the ancient commentator afford 
 a rather startling glimpse into the inner life of the com- 
 munit}', which was by no means proof against the frailties 
 of human nature. Cupid apparently would not be denied 
 entrance into the cell then, as in late mediaeval times. It is 
 one of these tales which lend a human touch to many an 
 old monastic record, and the bribe of the master's books 
 with which Drustice, the daughter of Drust, King of the 
 Picts (presumably of Gallowa}'), secures the aid of the 
 knowledge-thirsty student in the realisation of her guilt\- 
 desicrn, is sutjgestive. Either fate or the monkish narrator 
 takes vengeance, however, b}- the unfortunate issue of the 
 love affair for both. 
 
 In addition to this trace of the survival of the intellec- 
 tual culture of the Roman period, the poetry of the bards, 
 who sang the victories of the British leaders, has come 
 down as the faint echo of a struggle that, notwithstanding 
 the misery and lawlessness which it occasioned, could not 
 but stir the mind at times with a powerful inspiration. 
 Tradition* has enshrined the names of a Taliesin and a 
 Merdin. a Llywarch Hen, and an Aneurin, as the ancient 
 singers of the vicissitudes of this war-torn period. There are 
 not wanting advocates of their claims, and some of these, like 
 Skene, who has translated their reputed works, contained 
 in the "Four Ancient Books of Wales," are not incompetent 
 judges of this kind of literary lore. The realistic painting 
 of nature, the jarring note of fierce battle, the paneg)-ric of 
 the dead hero, the lonesome tragic sentiment that pervades 
 these strange effusions, have certainl}' caught the spirit of a 
 strongly moved epoch. Its heroes and their deeds are 
 mostly associated with scenes in the north, between the 
 walls of Antonine and Hadrian, and this much 1 may assert 
 against the view of those who, like Stephen, in his " Litera- 
 ture of the K.\-mr}-," reject their authenticity and make 
 
 * Nennius (sect. 62, Giles' edit.) contains a notice of tlie banls fanted for 
 poetry during the struggle of (lie iiriions u> maintain independence. 
 
CLERICAL VICES. 133 
 
 them out to be, at the earliest, tvvclfth-centuiy compositions, 
 that they impress me as being at all events in sympa- 
 thetic and living touch with the heroic and tragic era, which 
 they depict with a terminology, unfortunately often obscure 
 from the point of view both of history and topography. 
 
 The religious life of the Ikitons throughout this long 
 period of conflict with the pagan invader does not appear 
 in the pages of Gildas in a favourable light. The two 
 visits paid by Germanus,* Bishop of Auxerre, in 429 and 
 448, reinvigorated for a time its ebbing spirit. To his role as 
 controversial theologian against a Pelagian party he added 
 that of political Mentor, and succeeded by the dauntless 
 faith that nerved the Briton to conquer the Saxon in a battle 
 known as the Hallelujah Victory, in identifying, for a space, 
 Christianity with an ardent patriotism. But his two visits 
 were after all but episodes, and the lawlessness and disorgani- 
 sation, the religious degeneration, which demanded for their 
 control the strength of a great leader, the continuous presence 
 of a moulding hand, superior to circumstance, appear to have 
 reasserted their blighting tendency after his departure. 
 The vices of the clergy stand out in dark relief in the 
 general demoralisation which the monk of Ruys paints in 
 such shady colours. The rigid asceticism of the writer does 
 not, however, commend him as a calm or unbiassed spectator. 
 The harshness of his language reminds of that of St Jerome 
 when inveighing against an opponent, like Vigilantius, of 
 his austere and morbid views. He brands them, for instance, 
 as "enemies of Christ and not priests," as "teachers of 
 wickedness and not bishops," as "adversaries and not 
 servants of Christ," and so on, in epithets hardly repeatable 
 before refined ears. The immorality with which he charges 
 them may be nothing more than a disinclination towards 
 celibacy, and the worldliness, which shamed their profession 
 of the gospel of self-sacrifice, might only have been an 
 objection to the morbid life of the cloister. As is his wont, 
 he plies them with Scripture, and is never at a loss for a text 
 to point his moral. But, while we may suspect that their 
 crime was to a considerable extent that of differing, in life 
 
 * "Vita Gerniani," by his contemporary, Constantinus, written, however, 
 a considerable period after his death. 
 
134 CULTURE IX EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 and thought, from their monkish accuser, there is sufficient 
 ground left for concluding that the degeneration of manners 
 which he describes — the covetousness, hypocrisy, self-seek- 
 ing, servility towards the rich, harshness towards the poor, 
 want of interest in knowledge, &c., existed alongside the 
 stricter tendency which he also notices, and which had 
 begun to assert itself in the monastic activity derived from 
 Armorica (Brittany), and perhaps intensified in Gaul by the 
 impulse emanating from St Benedict and his disciples. 
 This tendency found expression in the labours of a David* 
 and a Cadoc in Wales, and of a Kentigern in Strathclyde. 
 
 Between the time of Ninian and that of Kentigern, 
 a century and a half later, little, beyond these general 
 references of Gildas, is known regarding the condition of 
 Christianity in the northern parts of the ancient province. 
 Tradition, as we have seen, has preserved the fame of 
 Candida Casa as a school, but there is reason to believe 
 that, after the decease of St Ninian, its influence in the 
 practical work of instructing the people waned considerabh-. 
 It is through character, rather than institutions, that Chris- 
 tianity has wielded its power o\-er the mass, and no out- 
 standing figure appears on the horizon of tradition until 
 the founder of the see of Glasgow. St Patrick, in the 
 epistle which he wrote to the savage Coroticus, speaks 
 of " the apostate Picts." and the phrase contains a 
 significant hint of the decay of Xinian's work among 
 the tribes north of the P'orlh, if not among those in 
 Galloway, The labours of the Apostle of Ireland ma}^ well 
 have had a beneficial influence on his native country. The 
 existence of a movement, like that with which his name is 
 bound up, could hardly fail to make itself felt in a land, 
 distant at one point but an hour or two's sail, and connected 
 with its leader by the associations of youth. The mission 
 of Patrick, however, was apparentl}- exaggerated by a later 
 age for the purpose of maintaining the primacy of Armagh. 
 He has been represented by mediaeval tradition as achieving 
 in a comparatively short time the complete conversion of a 
 
 * The two Synods of Llandewi Brefi anil Lucus Victoriiv (.iht. 569), pre- 
 sided over by David, were occuined with the reforni.Ttion of the clergy in 
 accordance with the more rigorous ilevelopnient (Haddan and Stubbs, i., \\ 1 16). 
 
INFLUENCE OF ST PATRICK. 135 
 
 people, among whom Christianity had hitherto made but 
 little impression. He appears as a Moses * who, supported 
 by miraculous assistance, defeats all the arts and charms 
 of his Druidic adversaries, and disarms all opposition to his 
 teachine. But his contest with the Druidic cult in a 
 land, where the bard and the priest wielded great power 
 and enjoyed many privileges, was evidently not so trium- 
 phant as his mediaeval panegyrists describe it. There are 
 numerous instances, in the Celtic Christian literature of 
 the sixth and seventh centuries of the influence of the 
 pagan worship long after St Patrick's day. His name 
 remained long unknown to foreign historians, and neither 
 Prosper, his contemporary in Gaul, who notes the unsuccess- 
 ful mission of Palladius to Ireland in 431, nor Bseda, in 
 the beginning of the eighth century, had apparently any 
 knowledge of his labours. That he achieved no national 
 adoption of the Christian faith is certain, from the fact that 
 the Ardri, or overlord of Ireland, was not a Christian till 
 513. In his own simple and modest narrative, there is no 
 claim to extensive success, but he was undoubtedly the 
 founder of a large number of churches, of which he con- 
 sidered himself the authoritative bishop, in spite of those 
 who sought to depreciate him ; and in the dim traditional 
 associations of early Irish ecclesiastics, like St Bridget, 
 Monenna, Buitte, or Boethius, with Scotland, we may have a 
 trace of his indirect influence on the population of his native 
 land, during this shadowy period. t The labours of Palladius 
 and his successors Ternan and Serf among the northern 
 Picts are involved in the shadows of obscurity and contra- 
 diction. The two first-named are connected traditionally 
 with the churches of Fordun and Banchory respectively. 
 
 Another name which bulks very largely in mediaeval 
 tradition and romance, and which has been associated with 
 the maintenance of Christianity in the north, is that of King 
 Arthur. He is not only the hero created by the poetic 
 fancy of a people, struggling to maintain their independence 
 
 * Nennius, sects. 50-55. 
 
 t Skene ("Celtic Scotland," ii. p. 36; cf. p. 193) finds in Brychan, 
 reputed founder of Falkirk and Brechin, a trace of the influence of Wales 
 during this period, as also in the dedication, in the north, of churches to the 
 Welsh saints, Nidan and Finan. 
 
136 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 against the Saxon; he also appears as the champion of 
 Christian it}- against the dominant paganism of the invader. 
 In addition to the sword, with which he hews his enemies in 
 pieces, he bears the image of the Virgin. Dr Skene, following 
 the narrative of Nennius, boldly traces the sites of his battles 
 throughout the south of Scotland,* regardless of the lore 
 that represents him as the conqueror of Scandinavia and 
 the west of Europe, and the fact that his name has left its 
 trace over an area extending from the Forth to the Loire. 
 It is as a culture hero, however, not as a Christian conqueror, 
 that the explanation of his greatness is to be sought. The 
 bards created him out of some ancient god, combining 
 some scraps of history with a mythologx' that had long 
 lost its living power, but which takes realistic shape anew 
 in the pages of Geoffrey and the mediaeval romancers. Like 
 the mighty Barbarossa, who still awaits the call that is to 
 summon him from his sleep in the cavern at KilThauser, the 
 poetic imagination of a people, who revelled in the imagined 
 glories of former days, long looked for the return of this 
 bardic figure from the isle of Avallan, whither he was 
 carried to recover from the wounds inflicted b)- the false 
 Medrant. One of the places where popular lore came to 
 locate the waiting hero and his knights was the Eildon 
 Hills, where shall be heard the voice 
 
 " That bids the charmed sleep of ages Hy, 
 Rolls the long sound through Eildon 's caverns vast, 
 While each dark warrior rises at the blast, 
 His horn, his falchion grasjis with mighty hand, 
 And peals proud Arthur's march from fairyland. ''t 
 
 " It may be granted," says Rhys, " that there was an historic 
 Arthur, who may have held the office, which, under the 
 Roman administration, was known as that of the Comes 
 Britanni.e, that he may, like Aurelius Ambrosius, have been 
 partly of Roman descent, that Maelgw}-n was his nephew, 
 whom Gildas accuses of slaying his uncle, that his name 
 Arthur was either the Latin Artorius, or else a Celtic name 
 belonging in the first instance to a god Arthur. . . . On 
 the one hand, we have the man Arthur, ... on the 
 other, a greater .\rthin-, a more colossal figure, of which we 
 
 * " I'"our Ancient Hooks of Wales," i., cliaji. iv. of Introduction, 
 
 t Leyden, " I'oetic Works," p. 36. Cf. Rhys, " Arthurian Le end." ]>. iS. 
 
KINC, ARTHUR A\I) KENTIGERN. 1 37 
 
 have, so to speak, but a torso, rescued from the wreck of 
 the Celtic Pantheon."* 
 
 Thus, this stril^ing torso disappears from the view of the 
 student of cur early culture to make way for the more 
 sober. }-et more tanj^ible, figure of Kentigern (518-603?). 
 The earliest e.xtant life of this bishopt — the contemporary 
 of Columba and David — is the production of Joceline, a 
 monk of the abbey of Furness, who was commissioned by 
 his namesake of the see of Glasgow, towards the end of 
 the twelfth century, to write an account of the founder of 
 the diocese.:|: As in the case of the author of the life of 
 Ninian, he professes to draw his materials from two already 
 existing works — the one obscured by an inelegant style, 
 and containing matter at the beginning contrary to the 
 *' Catholic faith," the other written in the " Scotico stilo," 
 more copious and full of solecisms. His aim, he naively 
 tells us, was " to clothe so precious a treasure, if not in gold 
 tissue and silk, at least in clean linen." The reader may 
 not agree with his estimate of the value of the production, 
 to which he strove to give a respectable appearance, but he 
 must admit that the garrulous monk understood how to tell 
 a story in a spirited manner. He manifests the tendency to 
 become inflated, inseparable from the mediaeval panegyrist, 
 yet he evident!}- keeps before him the taste of his reader, who 
 sought in the saintly biography, not mere religious edifica- 
 tion, but the mental excitement and relaxation afforded by 
 the modern novel. These monkish writers understood well 
 the art of dispensing poetical justice — one of the secrets of 
 the fascination of fiction — and the saint that always comes 
 out of a scrape with flying colours is as interesting as the 
 hero that must win at last. Many of the incidents differ 
 from the insipid episodes, served up by Ailred in his 
 biography of Ninian, by the dramatic colouring which 
 joceline gives them, and as for the indispensable love affair, 
 the monk of Furness is as fertile, and fully as piquant, as 
 the hackneyed story-teller of the present time. All the 
 
 * " Arthurian Legend," p. 4S. 
 
 t Edited and translated by Bishop Forbes, " Historians of Scotland," vol. v. 
 
 J A fragment of a somewhat earlier life has been preserved. It was com- 
 posed by " a cleric of St Kentigern/' by direction of Bishop Herbert, who died 
 1 164, but it does not add to our knowledge of the saint. 
 
138 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 more pity that his history is so crude and so uncritical. 
 The good monk had evident)}- but very hazy ideas of the 
 period, and the acts which he depicts with such an assurance 
 of faith, and while he ma)- be trusted in regard to a number 
 of leading facts in the life of Kentigern, he \iews them too 
 often from the standpoint of his own time, and fills up the 
 blanks with the confused and inaccurate fancies of a later 
 tradition. In the account of his birth, for instance, in which 
 King Loth figures very prominentl}-, there is a palpable trace 
 of the Arthurian legend, and the adventure of Queen 
 Langoreth, the spouse of Rydderch of Strathclyde, and the 
 knight, which serves to illustrate the sagacit}-, if not the 
 supernatural power, of the hol\- man, is a reminiscence of 
 the romance of Tristran and Iseult. The touch of Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth is thus observable more than once, and the 
 science of history, as distinguished from fiction, was }-et to 
 be. The stor\- of his birth is hopelessh- pervaded by this 
 spirit of romance. The unhappy condition of his mother 
 Theneu, the daughter of Loth, seduced by the wiles of her 
 sacrilegious suitor, and driven forth as an outcast in conse- 
 quence ; the bold, miraculous fashion in \vhich the skiff is 
 made to carry its forlorn occupant across the Firth of 
 P'orth in the direction of Culros, the birth of the future 
 bishop on the seashore, the discover)- of mother and child 
 by the shepherds, and their kindly reception b)- St Serf; 
 the affectionate relations of pupil and master, who familiarl)- 
 called him Alungo ; the persecuting tricks with which his 
 cn\ious schoolfellows anno)- him, his consequent flight, and 
 the touching dialogue between the fugitive and his master 
 across the Forth near Stirling, make a spirited and enter- 
 taining story. Onl)- it cannot claim to be an)thing more 
 than a confused compilation, b)- one ignorant of the past. 
 It certainl)^ is not history, for King Loth is a bardic creation, 
 and St Serf, a j^ersonage who figures in the time of 
 Adamnan, about the beginning of the eighth centur)-, was 
 not born till long after the days of Kentigern. Nor could 
 Culros boast of such a monastic establishment before the 
 time of King Brude MacDargart. If there is an\- truth at 
 all in this dramatic narrative of his chiklhood and )-outh, 
 the chronology and the topograph)- are strangely inverted, 
 
THE ORIGIN OF A GREAT CITV. 1 39 
 
 and need a readjustment, which seems now hopeless.* 
 We shall probably be near the truth if we regard him 
 as a native of Strathclyde, and educated either at Candida 
 Casa or in some Welsh monastery. There is no mention 
 of the former in the pages of Jocelinc — a blank that is 
 suggestive of the scantiness of his knowledge of the 
 period — though he represents Kentigern as evangelising 
 anew the Picts of Galloway, but he takes him to Wales, 
 where he founded the monastery of St Asaph in the vale 
 of Clywd. 
 
 The reputation which Kentigern had acquired as a 
 religious devotee in some British cloister led to his 
 selection by the people and the King of Strathclyde as 
 their bishop. Consecrated to the episcopal office by an 
 Irish ecclesiastic, he transformed his cell on the bank of 
 the IMelindonor, where, according to tradition, he had 
 resided some time as a religious recluse, into the head- 
 quarters of his diocese. This spot was already associated 
 with the spread of Christianit)-. Near it was the cemetery 
 of St Ninian, and not unlikelv a Roman settlement. Near 
 it, at all events, were the numerous traces of an empire that 
 had passed away, and some, at least, of the old stations or 
 settlements may still have served as centres of population. 
 Many of the religious teachers who played such an 
 important part in the regeneration of Western Europe 
 during the sixth and seventh centuries, took up their 
 residence amid the desolate scenes of Roman civilisation. 
 The charm of a mighty past still exerted its unconscious 
 spell, and the solitude that had long haunted those sites of 
 a fallen greatness was the nurse not only of the pious 
 contemplation of the hermit, but of the vigorous industrial 
 life that speedily associated itself with it. The monks, 
 especially after the influence of St Benedict and the 
 practical organisation, to which he subjected his monastic 
 communities at Subiaco and Monte Cassino, had become 
 the predominating power in the religious life of Italy and 
 Gaul in the sixth century, became the means of undoing 
 
 * The "Aberdeen Breviary," the Bollandists, and others, try to solve the 
 difficulty by creating two Serfs, but this would imply a double foundation of 
 Culros. 
 
I40 CULTURK IX EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 the mischief wrought by the barbarian invasions. To the 
 duties of obedience and devotion, St Benedict joined that 
 of labour, and by-and-by the axe of the monk cleared away 
 the tangled thicket that encumbered the ancient site of 
 some Roman settlement, and his plough reclaimed the 
 waste ground that had once been a smiling field. To the 
 efforts of the monkish community to restore the benefits of 
 a faded civilisation, many of the great cities of France and 
 Northern Europe owe their origin, and we can readily 
 believe that the huge modern industrial centre of the West 
 of Scotland, whose ships float on the remotest seas, which 
 bears the figure of Kentigern on its arms, and which long 
 invoked him as its patron saint, had a similar beginning. 
 Around the Church rose the hamlets of the clerical com- 
 munity, attracted by the bishop, and which ere long 
 included, mayhap, the booth of the trader and the mechanic. 
 According to Joceline, each lived in his separate hut (he 
 apparently regarded them, though incorrectly, as a body of 
 the later Culdees), possessed everything in common, and 
 divided their time between the devotions of the oratory 
 and the toils of agriculture. In both respects the bishop 
 excited their emulation by personal example. He was as 
 ready to grasp the plough handle as to bear the episcopal 
 staff. By solitary meditation and prayer, as well as by the 
 most rigorous self-discipline, he strove to realise the 
 monkish ideal, and to impress it on his disciples, with the 
 result, flattering at least to his perseverance if not to his 
 heart, that " the sight or touch of the most beautiful maiden 
 had no more effect upon him than the hardest flint." He 
 was evidently a man of character, like many of those 
 resolute devotees who wielded such a power in Western 
 Europe in that age of transition, through Teutonic barbarism, 
 to the new world that transformed itself from the old, and 
 whose intense pursuit of their ideal of the religious life has 
 floated down the centuries in that collection of legend, often 
 monotonous in its sameness, yet rich in incident and not 
 wanting a species of poetic charm. 
 
 There appears to have been ample scope, in the de- 
 cayed Christian sentiment and demoralised condition of 
 the descendants of Xinian's converts in the north, for the 
 
PAGAN OPPOSITION. 14I 
 
 missionary activity, which was formed b}' the devotional 
 spirit of the cloister. The old paganism still counted its 
 votaries, and survived in the semi-christian ideas which 
 always mark such a transitionary period ; while the morality 
 of the Gospel was at a discount where the influence of an 
 active Christian spirit was awanting. The ecclesiastical 
 legislation which has come down to us in the account of 
 the Welsh Synods,* held in the latter half of the sixth 
 century, and which had reference to such vices as con- 
 cubinage and incest — vices inveighed against by Jocelinc — 
 as well as the tendency to relapse into heathenism,! or to 
 combine it with a superficial profession of Christianity, 
 where the continuity of Christian effort has been broken, 
 render it highly probable that the account which Joceline 
 gives of his labours as missionary bishop, and social 
 reformer, is a true one. His aggressive attitude towards 
 the pagan customs and the loose moral relations of the 
 people aroused a spirit of opposition, which resulted in his 
 retirement to Wales for a number of years, where he 
 founded the monastery of Llanelwi, afterwards St Asaph, 
 a famous school of monastic learning and virtue. King 
 Morken;]: and his advisers, whose enmity was the immediate 
 cause of his flight, of course got the worst of it at the 
 hands of Joceline, but there is no improbability in " the 
 tyrant who scorned the life and doctrine of the holy man," 
 or in the "sons of Belial who, excited by the sting of intense 
 hatred, and infected with the poison of the devil, took counsel 
 together how they might lay hold of Kentigern by craft 
 and put him to death." St Patrick inveighs with equal 
 force against a king of his time, the Briton Coroticus, " a 
 tyrant who fears neither God nor His priests," and whose 
 followers were " wicked rebels against Christ and betrayers 
 of Christians into the hands of the Scots and Ficts."§ The 
 epistle, in which he thus arraigns him, conclusively shows 
 that the saints of those days were not exempt from the 
 
 * Haddan and Stubbs, i., pp. 11 3- 11 7. 
 
 t Dr Todd ("Life of Patrick," p. loi) adduces evidence to show that this 
 result followed the death of the Apostle of Ireland, and the same is true of 
 that of Ninian. 
 
 X " The Mercant of Nennius," sect. 63. 
 
 § " Epist. ad Coroticum." 
 
14:! CULTURK IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 vicissitudes of the times, nor saved bv their faith, or their 
 sacred character, from outrage and failure. 
 
 In Rh\-dderch Hael (Roderick the Generous), under 
 whom, some \-ears later, a reaction in favour of Christianitv 
 took place, and who invited Kentigern to return from 
 Wales, we have unquestionably an historical figure. He 
 not only bulks in bardic tradition as the conqueror of his 
 heathen rival, Gwendolen, at Ardderyd in Liddesdale, but 
 he is mentioned by Adamnan* a century later in his " Life 
 of Columba " as sending messengers to the apostle of the 
 Picts, to inquire what sort of death he should die. Hence- 
 forth the diocese of the bishop was co-extensive with his 
 dominions, extending from the Ch'de to the Uerwent. 
 The inquisition into the condition of the see of Glasgow 
 b)- David, Prince of Cumbria, and afterwards King of 
 Scotland, showed that many ancient lands belonged to it 
 even in Dumfries and Tweeddale, but all traces of the 
 Church had been lost amid the wars and devastations of 
 the interval, though Kentigern had many successors.-f* 
 Though his power was not, as his biographer would have 
 us believe, supreme in matters political as well as ecclesi- 
 astical, we may confidently accept the testimony of the 
 numerous dedications of churches in his honour from 
 Aberdeenshire to Cumberland, to his activity and in- 
 fluence in the restoration of Christianity and the re- 
 generation of social abuses. At Hoddam, where he 
 spent some years, Joceline draws a vivid picture of the 
 manner in which, seated on a hill, he instructed the rustic 
 population that flocked to hear him on the errors of idolatry. 
 At length he returned to his old headquarters on the banks 
 of the Melindonor. Here he renewed the former life of 
 monastic devotion and missionary energ}^ which had 
 decayed during so long an interruption. E.xaggeration is 
 inseparable from the task of the paneg}-rist, especially 
 when he is writing on commission and under the influence 
 of the ideas of a much later age. Kentigern did probably 
 attempt to extend his mission to the apostate Picts beyond 
 
 * He entitles one of his chapters " De Rege Rodereo filio Tothail qui in 
 I'etra Cloithe regnavil. Beati viri prophetia." 
 
 t Innes, " .Sketches of Early Scotch History," p. 31. 
 
KENTIGERxN AND HIS COXTKMrORARIES. I43 
 
 the Forth, but \vc ma\- be certain that his biographer takes 
 us into the realm of iTi\-th when he embraces the Orkneys. 
 Norway, and Iceland within the sphere of the zeal of his 
 emissaries. The absence of all knowledge of his ex- 
 istence on the part of Bseda, and still more of Adamnan, 
 who, as we have seen, specially refers to Strathclyde 
 and its Christian king, precludes the idea that he en- 
 jo}-ed anything more than a local reputation, though it 
 does not detract from the success of his labours within 
 his own sphere. In common with all the British clergy, 
 he appears to have exercised no influence on the Saxon 
 heathendom which had found a footing on the east 
 coast, and was steadily advancing westwards. Politically, 
 he was associated with a losing cause, and the defeat of the 
 Scottish chief, Aidan, and his British allies at Degsastane 
 (Davvston) in 603, the reputed year of Kentigern's death, 
 and the yet more crushing defeat, inflicted on the British 
 army at Chester soon after, contributed doubtless to throw 
 the shadow of forgetful ness over his memory, as well as, to 
 some extent, arrested the progress of his mission. One 
 successor is mentioned as taking part in a British synod, 
 and one is supposed to have been present on a similar 
 occasion in Rome, but the history of the see is lost amid 
 the confusions caused by Anglic conquest, and was but 
 scantily renewed b}^ the inquisition into his past, ordered by 
 King David in the twelfth century. There ma}^ be truth 
 in the dramatic account of his meeting with Columba, who 
 is represented as paying him the homage of a visit, but if so, 
 the relative importance of the holy men must be reversed. 
 His sevenfold visit to Pope Gregory is pure fable. Com- 
 munication with the Continent was still kept up, as the 
 connection of the British Church with its offshoot in 
 Armorica shows. The Saxon likewise maintained a close 
 intercourse with his Prankish kinsmen in the north of Gaul. 
 It would be a mistake to think that the march of events in 
 these countries, which once, like Britain, formed the 
 members of a vast unity, was altogether unknown in the 
 remote north. The minds of men then, as now, were 
 doubtless moved by the tale of great events — by those 
 principal movements, which were moulding the destiny of 
 
144 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 the future, such as the campaiL,nis of Helisarius, and the 
 destruction of the empire of the \'andals in North Africa, 
 or the decay of the Ostro-Gothic kingdom in Italy in spite 
 of the shade of the great Theodoric, and the settlement 
 there of Alboin and his Lombards by the last of those 
 revolutions, by which the old Roman Europe disappeared, 
 and the Teutonic influence acquired that predominating 
 power which has lasted to our da)'. Nor was the great 
 Pope unacquainted with the island, which only shortl}^ 
 before his time was finally ceded by the Byzantine emperor 
 to the barbarians, and which for two centuries had retained 
 so many traces of its imperial connection. He strove with 
 all the energy begotten of an ardently cherished scheme, not 
 onl}- to Christianise the Sa.xons, but to bring the old British 
 Church into renewed communion with Christian Rome, 
 and the fame of " the golden-mouthed Pope," as the Irish 
 Cummian calls him, was likely not unknown to Kentigern, 
 though the knowledge was probably not reciprocal. 
 
 In the pathetic words in which Gregory describes the 
 fallen glory of the once imperial city, we may find an image 
 of the decay which had b\- this time overtaken her proud 
 monuments throughout the provinces of her once mighty 
 empire, and the dirge of a past, which now only lived in the 
 new, yet by no means strange, forms that had passed through 
 the mould of a triumphant barbarism. " Rome, once mis- 
 tress of the world," he exclaims, as he casts his eye upon her 
 ruined palaces at the end of the si.xth century, "how do we 
 see her fallen ! Where is the senate ? Where is the people? 
 But why speak I of men ? The very buildings are de- 
 stroyed, and the walls crumbled down. . . . Once her 
 princes and chiefs spread themselves over all the earth to 
 possess it. The sons of worldl)- men hastened thither to 
 advance themselves in life. Now that she is deserted and 
 ruined, no man comes hither to seek his fortune ; there is 
 no power remaining to oppress the poor."* 
 
 To Ireland and her monasteries, to lona and its Celtic 
 Christian culture, untouched b\' imperial ambition, we must 
 now turn for the influences that told on cuu- culture, and 
 moulded that of the Continent for several centuries. 
 
 * Ilnm. iS, Ezek. (apiul Monlalembert). 
 
BOOK III 
 
 CELTIC CHRISTIAN CULTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 COLUMBA AND lONA. 
 
 WE can follow the trace of the old Roman culture," 
 says Professor Giesebrecht,* " to the end of the 
 sixth century, after which there follows a period 
 of the most fearful barbarism throughout the West, whose 
 darkness is relieved by no spark of the higher intellectual 
 life. All the literary and artistic remains of this period 
 bear the stamp of the most frightful degeneration, now 
 rampant everywhere in those lands which once, under the 
 domination of Rome, had flourished so gloriously." It is in 
 the remote Erin, which had remained practically untouched t 
 by the ambition of Rome, that we must seek the light that 
 brightens the prospect across this dark period of chaos. 
 In the Celtic monasteries and their offshoots in North Bri- 
 tain, in France, in Germany, and even in Italy, there 
 glowed the flame of an intense devotion to a high moral 
 ideal, as well as to the pursuit of knowledge and intellectual 
 excellence. The passionate enthusiasm of these uncon- 
 quered tribes, whose vigour had never been sapped by 
 Roman misrule, though too often consumed in internal 
 feud, burst forth with irresistible ardour, when, under the 
 inspiration of Finnian and the many distinguished disciples 
 he had trained in his monastery of Clonard, the religious 
 
 * " Geschichte der Deutschen Kaiserzeit," i., p. 94. 
 
 t Professor Stokes, in his work on the "Celtic Church in Ireland," 
 argues, however, that Ireland was not so free from the presence of the 
 Roman as is usually asserted. 
 
 K 
 
146 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 instinct had been aroused by a wave of monastic fervour. 
 The old culture of the bards and the pagan priests, which 
 had mingled the patriotic songs of a mythic past with the 
 worship of the native deities, was transformed by this new- 
 born intensity of sentiment. The faith and life of the 
 Gospel took possession of the future, and made the fervid 
 Celtic nature for two centuries, before Charlemagne arose to 
 combine government with the development of knowledge, 
 the most powerful force in the culture of Western Europe. 
 The Anglo-Saxon monks, who afterwards became their 
 rivals in missionary zeal, only followed in the footsteps of 
 a Columbanus or a St Gall, a Fredolin or a Kilian, and 
 were to a large extent their spiritual and intellectual off- 
 spring. For while the monasteries of the ancient Scotia 
 gave forth those swarms of wandering missionaries, who 
 penetrated with the Gospel among the wildest peoples 
 beyond the Rhine and the Danube, carrying with them the 
 treasures of classic learning, they received with open doors 
 the crowds that poured into them from Anglo-Saxon Bri- 
 tain and their kindred in Gaul and Germany. Bangor, 
 Clonard, Moville (Maghbile), Clonmacnoise, Durrow, and 
 other famous foundations of monkish zeal in Ireland, took 
 the place of those ancient seats of learning which had 
 languished with the fall of the empire, and overshadowed 
 the more renowned of the older monasteries on the Conti- 
 nent. Some of them, like Clonard and Bangor, counted as 
 many as three thousand inmates each. The rise of the 
 English schools of York, Canterbury, Jarrow, and Wear- 
 mouth did not obscure the glory of their Celtic rivals. 
 Ba^da* notes in his time the pre-eminence which they 
 shared with Rome itself in attracting the ardent youth, 
 eager for knowledge and perfection in the monastic life.t 
 In the libraries of the Continental monasteries founded by 
 them, the fruits of their industry, their scholarship, and their 
 taste are seen in the illuminated copies of the Scriptures or 
 the classic authors, with commentaries and glosses so 
 valuable to the philologist and the student of culture. 
 
 * " Hist. Eccl.," iii. 27. 
 
 t There still existed at Armagh in 1092 a ciuartcr called Tricn Saxon, 
 occupied by Anglo-Saxon students. 
 
WAR AND RELIGION. I47 
 
 It cannot be said that the political condition of Ireland 
 favoured this extraordinary growth of the new Christian 
 culture, which had been planted by Patrick, and revived 
 and intensified by the founders of its famous monastic 
 schools. Like the other nations of Western Europe during 
 this period of its noblest title to fame, it was desolated by 
 all the miseries of war and party strife. Its Ardri or chief 
 kings almost all died a violent death, and the feuds of its 
 inferior monarchs and chiefs fill its annals with the mono- 
 tonous tale of battle and outrage. Even the inmates of 
 the monasteries were not at times superior to the quarrel- 
 some, impetuous, and vindictive temperament, whose 
 excesses have darkened its unhappy destiny. Their bloody 
 conflicts form a peculiarly painful spectacle in the tragic 
 drama of early Irish history. Side by side with that pas- 
 sionate patriotism, which has found a touching expression 
 in some of the greatest and most austere of its saints, as 
 well as in its treasures of bardic poetry, and which is still a 
 living force in our day, went the uncontrollable tendency to 
 disunion and lawless excess. Nevertheless the religious 
 sentiment, combined with a many-sided intellectual activity, 
 flourished in Ireland throu<7hout the centuries of barbarism 
 which wrapped the rest of Europe in its stifling embrace 
 from Clovis to Charlemagne. " War and religion," it has 
 been said, " have always been the two great passions in 
 Ireland." 
 
 The monastery was a national institution. It partook 
 of the vigour and intensity with which the national customs 
 have asserted themselves so powerfully over the Celtic race. 
 Crushed for so many centuries in those lands of the West, 
 which were once its heritage, trodden down by the more 
 persistent force of Teuton influence, the tenacity of its lore, 
 its culture, has outlived the political nonentity which was 
 its doom, and in the Highlands of Scotland, in Wales, in 
 Ireland, in Brittany, as well as in those distant colonies 
 where the Gael has found a new home, the touch of 
 a venerable antiquity still makes itself felt. In English 
 literature, as a late gifted writer* has shown, the play of 
 its fancy, the lightness of its touch, may yet be traced. 
 * Arnold, "The Study of Celtic Literature," sect. iii. 
 
148 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 The new religion that supplanted the old paganism came 
 under the influence of this characteristic tenacity of grasp, 
 and derived a perennial vigour from it. The Church was 
 organised, during the period of its most splendid activity, on 
 the basis of the tribe ; it was simply a series of Christian 
 communities bound together on the family principle, which 
 formed the characteristic feature of Celtic national life. 
 This identity of the Church with the forms of Celtic society 
 enabled it to maintain its ground amid the most frightful 
 disorders, and, along with the powerful individuality of 
 many of the marked figures whose memories have outlived 
 for so many centuries the decay of this splendid epoch, 
 fitted it to wield on European Christendom such a far- 
 reaching influence. Among those great names, that of 
 Columba is specially dear to the student of our early Scot- 
 tish culture as the bearer of this great movement, of which 
 he was at the same time one of the fathers in his native 
 land, to our shores. No monument honours the shade of 
 this grand old monk, who, nevertheless, stands out as one of 
 the greatest creative spirits in the annals of our country. 
 After all, his life is his noblest monument, and in this respect 
 few of the great Christian heroes, to whom humanity owes 
 so much, have a better title to a people's reverence. 
 
 Unlike Ninian and Kentigern, Columba has been 
 fortunate in having a biographer who lived within less 
 than a century after his death, and who, as his eighth 
 successor at lona, had ample opportunity of learning the 
 facts of his life. Adamnan's materials were drawn partly 
 from written, partly from oral sources. He not only made 
 use of a brief earlier account of the virtues of the saint by 
 Cummian,* the seventh abbot, which he embodied almost 
 literally in the third book of his work, but of the testimony 
 of eye-witnesses of some of the events he relates. In 
 addition to these, he had at his command a number of 
 poems in praise of his hero by contemporary poets like 
 Dalian,! the chief bard of Erin, and his intimate friend and 
 successor at lona, Baithene. Gifted with a sympathetic 
 
 * " Dc Virtiitibiis Sancti Columbne." 
 
 t Author of the " Amra Cuhimcille," a poem in praise of the saint, in return 
 for his advocacy of the cause of the bards at the Convention of Drumceatt. 
 
COLUMBA AND HIS BIOGRAPHER. I49 
 
 insight into the character of the great monk, his work may 
 be compared with the biography of Martin by Sulpicius 
 Severus, or that of Wilfrid by Eddius. Though coloured 
 like them by the credulity of the time, it is the work of an 
 accomplished scholar, who combined, with a ready faith, 
 that respect for the truth which would commemorate 
 " nothing that is untrue or doubtful regarding so great a 
 man." His versatile and sympathetic narrative is wanting 
 in that precision of consecutive statement, with which a less 
 superstitious biographer might have furnished us, but it 
 presents, in characteristic glimpses at least, the drama of a 
 great movement, and brings us under the spell of a 
 mighty personality. There is all the charm of romance in 
 his gossip}' pages. They lead us, with the firm tread of an 
 unerring guide, into a world strangely different from ours — 
 the world of faith and fancy, of heroic figures and im- 
 passioned souls — the world in which the old barbarism and 
 the new culture contrast, yet mingle with each other in 
 such effective incident — a world hoary with the antiquity 
 of dim ages, yet bathed in the springlike freshness of a new 
 creation. To the observant eye there is a fascination about 
 this old-world picture, with its mingled touches of dream- 
 land and reality, its intensity of faith and action, its 
 freshness of dawn relieving the shades of receding night. 
 There is a spell in the simple cell of our monkish author, 
 and he knows how to wield it. 
 
 Other sources of information, next to Adamnan, are the 
 "Old Irish Life,"* in the form of an ancient homily 
 addressed apparently to a congregation on the saint's 
 festival day ; the " Life " by O'Donnell, a collection of all 
 written information and local tradition about Columba, 
 written in 1532; the "Annals of the Four Masters," and 
 those of Tighernach. 
 
 According to the prophecies and visions which pre- 
 ceded his birth, the pre-eminence of the future apostle of 
 the Northern Picts ought to date even before that event ! 
 An angel appears to the fond imagination of his mother, 
 
 * " Leabhar Breac," translated by Hennessey in "Celtic Scotland," ii., 
 app. i. Another interesting life in the vernacular is in the " Anecdota 
 Oxoniensia," pt. v., 168-181. 
 
ISO CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 bearing a robe of extraordinary beauty as an emblem of 
 the subsequent greatness of her unborn child. Posterity 
 remembered too, that is invented, the prophecy of "Maucta, 
 a pilgrim from Britain," of the birth of a son, " whose name, 
 Colomb, shall be announced in every province of the isles 
 of the ocean." Columba doubtless owed not a little of the 
 pre-eminence he enjoys in such popular stories to his royal 
 rank. His father, Fidlimidh, the chief of a mountainous 
 district in the north-west of Ireland, was a great-grandson 
 of one of its supreme monarchs (Niall Naigiallach), his 
 mother a descendant of a celebrated king of Leinster. 
 His half-uncle, Muircertach, occupied the throne in the year 
 521, the probable date of his birth, and during his lifetime 
 it was held by a succession of his near relatives. It was to 
 the fact of these powerful connections by birth, as much as 
 to his reputation for sanctity, that he owed the influence 
 which he wielded on the political affairs of Ireland and the 
 Scottish colony in North Britain, and which forms a striking 
 feature of his after-career. His foster parents were the 
 O'Firghils, and with them, in accordance with the Celtic 
 custom of fosterage,* by which the children of the higher 
 classes were brought up in the family of some dependent, 
 he spent his childhood at a place called Doire Eithne,t in 
 the vicinity of Gartan, his birthplace. It is a wild spot in 
 the midst of mountain and lake scenery, still, it is said, the 
 haunt of the eagle, the raven, and the badger, and fitted to 
 nurture the weird spirit of the Celtic muse in his imaginative 
 soul. In addition to the instruction of the priest Cruith- 
 necan,:]: who had baptized him, and who appears to have acted 
 as his tutor, he spent some time as a pupil of Bishop Bragach 
 of Rathenaigh, whom he surprised by his ability to read the 
 " Misericordia."§ At the age of seventeen (the period over 
 which fosterage extended) he entered the celebrated 
 monastic school of Finnian, at Maghbilc (Moville), at the 
 head of Strangford Lough, who ordained him a deacon. 
 
 * Skene, "Celtic Scotlami," iii., p. 190. 
 
 + Now Kilmacrenan. 
 
 X It was from his habit of constant attendance in the Church of Tullach 
 Dubhglaise (Temple Douglas), during this period, that he earned the title of 
 Columcille — Columba of the Church. 
 
 § " Adamnan," iii. 3. C/. " Old Iri.-h Life." 
 
EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBA. I5I 
 
 There he imbibed that love of knowledge which he retained 
 throughout his missionary life. He zealously copied the 
 books within his reach, and delighted then, as afterwards at 
 lona, in reading and writing. His studies at Moville, and 
 under the still more distinguished Finnian of Clonard, 
 whither he subsequently removed, seem to have been con- 
 cerned largely with the Scriptures,* but he was acquainted 
 with the Latin language. The knowledge of the classic 
 languages and the pursuit of a relatively broad culture were 
 not unknown in the Irish monasteries of this time, as we 
 see from the works of Cummian, as well as in the " Life of 
 St Brendan," or that of Columbanus. At all events, the 
 studies of the cloister did not stifle the keen interest he felt 
 in the lore of his country. His love of poetry led him to 
 spend some time after he left Moville with the aged bard 
 Gem man, with whose " divine wisdom " the inspiring deeds 
 of his countrymen and the humanising charms of his native 
 scenery would doubtless be blended. Anciently the 
 champion and the nurse of paganism, the Irish muse had 
 begun to associate itself with Christianity, and the Irish 
 inonastery had its bard, who recorded its history in verse, 
 and sang the praises of its founder and its more notable 
 inmates. His triumphant defence of the bardic order, long 
 afterwards, at the convention of Drumceatt, and the poems 
 attributed to him, in which the religious sentiment is 
 broadened by the appreciation of nature, and the fervour of 
 patriotism, show that in the rapt spirit of the great mission- 
 ary there was room for the human emotions with which a 
 plastic fancy enriches our nature. At Clonard, Columba had 
 as fellow-students Comgall, Ciaran, Cairnech, and others, 
 whose names have been enshrined in the Irish Calendar, 
 and with whom, after being ordained priest by Etchen,t he 
 spent some time in meditative retirement on the banks of the 
 Findglas, preparing for his eventful life as "father and founder 
 of monasteries.":!: A pestilence broke up the community, 
 and drove Columba northwards, probably in the year 544. 
 
 * Adamnan speaks of him, when at Moville, as "still a youth in Scotia, learn- 
 ing the wisdom of the Holy Scriptures under St Findbar (Finnian) the bishop." 
 
 t The " Felire of Angus the Culdee " is the only authority for this tradition. 
 See Todd's " St Tatrick."' p. 71, 
 
 + Adamnan, preface. 
 
152 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 With his return to his kindred began the active work of 
 his h'fc ; and if we take the miraculous virtue ascribed to 
 him by his superstitious biographer as an indication of his 
 early reputation, his name already carried with it the weight 
 of unusual ability and devotion. The scene of his first 
 recorded labours was at Derry, anciently Daire Calgaich, a 
 fortified hill, so named from some long-forgotten chief,* 
 whose oakclad sides supplied the material for his humble 
 church, and still humbler cell. The next fifteen years, until 
 the battle of Culdrcbhne in 561, which looms in tradition as 
 the turning-point of his career, were devoted to the estab- 
 lishment of numerous monastic communities throughout 
 Ireland. The largest of these was at Durrow, "a noble 
 monastery," in the words of Baida, " next in importance to 
 lona only, which, from the great number of oaks, is called 
 Dearmach in the Scottish tongue." The most secluded, if 
 not the smallest, was in Glen Columcille, a weird, tempest- 
 swept spot, in the far west of Ulster, whose wild music, 
 brooding mists, and wave-lashed shore formed a congenial 
 environment for the rapt minds of these stern devotees.! 
 In such solitudes the spirit of asceticism found undisturbed 
 exercise, beyond the reach of the savage warfares, the 
 murderous lawlessness, which filled the land with desolation 
 and bloodshed, and of which Tighernac gives so many 
 instances.:]: 
 
 " In the second year after the battle of Culdrcbhne, and 
 in the forty-second year of his age, St Columba, resolving 
 to seek a foreign country for the love of Christ, sailed from 
 Scotia to Britain. "§ In this simple statement, which agrees 
 with that of Baida,!! we see the realisation of what was 
 evidently a long-cherished ideal. Columba was influenced 
 not merely by the spirit of knowledge and monkish asceti- 
 cism, but by the missionary zeal and love of travel which 
 characteri.sed the Irish monks of the sixth and seventh 
 
 * " National Diet, of Biog.," art. " Columba." According to the Irish Life, 
 it was granted to liim by King Aedh. 
 
 t Dr Reeves, in his edition of Adamnan, gives a list of thirty-seven Irish 
 monasteries which honoured Columba as tlieir founder. 
 
 J" Annals," ii., p. 133, &c. 
 
 § Adam., 2nd I'ra'f. A quotation from a poem of the baid Cenfaled. 
 
 II "Hist. Eccl.," iii. 4. 
 
DEPARTURE FROM ERIN. 1 53 
 
 centuries. To his youthful mind, such a life of adventurous 
 usefulness had an irresistible fascination, and the dream of 
 a great future often fanned the zeal of the scholar in the 
 cloister at Moville and Clonard, — a dream, whose realisa- 
 tion it did not require the gift of prophecy to foreshadow, 
 in the case of one possessed of such energy of mind. 
 " Columba," we are told, "solicited three things from God 
 — chastity, wisdom, and pilgrimage, all of which were 
 granted to him." Tradition has, however, invested this 
 missionary pilgrimage with a tragic interest. It represents 
 the departure of Columba from his beloved Erin as an act 
 of penance, and his sojourn in lona as an involuntary 
 exile. The primary cause of the battle of Culdrebhne was 
 ascribed by it* to his resentment at the death of Curnan, 
 who had murdered a nobleman at the feast of Tara, and 
 who was slain by Diarmit, King of Ireland, regardless of 
 the protection of the saint, to whom he had fled for refuge. 
 The sense of injury was aggravated by the adverse decision 
 of the king on the question of the ownership of a copy of 
 the Psalms (the cathach or battler, a pledge of victory in 
 battle), which he had surreptitiously made from the book of 
 Finnian in the church of Moville, and which he was com- 
 pelled to give up, on the ground that, as to every cow belongs 
 her calf, so to every book its copy. At his instigation, his 
 kinsman, the northern Hy Niall, took arms and avenged 
 his wrongs by inflicting a defeat on the army of the king. 
 The impulsive, resentful temperament of the Irish monks, 
 which often broke through the restraints of religion and 
 involved them in the feuds of the age,t makes it by no 
 means improbable that Columba was indirectly guilty of 
 the bloodshed that resulted from this quarrel. It is certain 
 that he brought upon himself the censure of the Church, 
 which passed sentence of excommunication upon him at a 
 synod held at the royal residence of Tailte. But his 
 biographer adds that the sentence was unjust:): and in 
 opposition to the opinion of St Brendan of Birr, who sees 
 
 *Tighernach, " Annales," "Annales iv. jNIagistroruni," and O'Donnell. 
 
 t Columba was connected with two other battles, according to tradition — 
 those of Cul-Rathan (Coleraine), 579, and Culfedha, 587. 
 
 ij: He speaks of " the pardonable and very trifling reasons," which, however, 
 he does not state. 
 
154 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 " a most brilliant pillar, wreathed with fier}' tresses," pre- 
 ceding his approach. The remorse awakened by this censure, 
 to which the penalty of perpetual banishment from Ireland 
 was added by Molaise,* who is represented as the arbiter 
 of his fate, led him to seek atonement for the past in 
 attempting the conversion of the Northern Picts. But this 
 tradition contradicts contemporary evidence. Not only is 
 the silence of his biographer on such a notable event in the 
 life of his hero a strong presumption in favour of its 
 mythical character, but we find him visiting his native land 
 on several occasions, taking an important part in its political 
 and religious affairs, and retaining his jurisdiction over 
 the numerous monasteries he had founded there. In the 
 missionary fervour of the age, not the remorse of the con- 
 victed culprit, lay rather the origin of that great movement 
 which transformed the pagan Picts into a Christian people, 
 and made the barren islet of lona, for several centuries, one 
 of the great centres of Celtic Christianity and the noble seat 
 of intellectual culture. 
 
 Its solitude,! as well as its situation near the border of 
 the heathen Picts and the Scottish colony that had settled 
 in Argyleshire, since the end of the fifth century, ;|: adapted it 
 as a convenient spot both for the solitary religious life to 
 which the Celtic monk showed such a marked tendency, 
 and for the exercise of that missionar)^ fervour which always 
 went along with it. Some of these tempest-swept island 
 solitudes that overlook the rugged shores of Ireland and 
 Britain had long been consecrated to the ceremonies of pagan 
 superstition. Their inhabitants bore a sacred character. 
 One was the reputed abode of the imprisoned Cronus, over 
 whom Briareus, assisted by his divine attendants, kept 
 guard. Another was inhabited by a priestly race, who 
 understood the portents of nature, and who were inviolable 
 in the view of the Britons.§ The}- were the haunt, too, of 
 
 * He imposed upon him, according to tradition, the task of winning for 
 Christ as many souls as had perished in battle through his instrumentality. 
 
 t Skene, however, suspects that it was already the scene of a Christian 
 settlement. The Old Irish Life certainly speaks of a bishop who left the 
 island on his arrival. 
 
 X " Chronicle of the Picts and Scots," pp. i8, 66. 
 
 § Plutarch, Uidot editii)n, iii. 511. 
 
MONASTIC SETTLEMENT IN lONA. 155 
 
 the spirits of the departed, who were prevented by the 
 watery barrier from intruding their presence on the hving, 
 and the inviolabihty with which superstition thus once 
 invested them may have partly influenced the Irish 
 monks to select them as the fitting sites of their monastic 
 colonies* Of these, lona or Hy, though insignificant com- 
 pared with many of the rugged members of the western 
 archipelago, has won a world-wide renown. 
 
 The monastery erected on it by Columba and his twelve 
 companions was humble enough— very unlike the mediaeval 
 pile whose ruins rivet the eye of the modern tourist. It 
 consisted of a cluster of wooden huts, surrounding a church 
 built of the same material, and enclosed, like the Celtic 
 village of the time, by a rath or rampart of stone or earth. 
 A little apart, on a slight eminence, and overlooking the 
 beehive huts of the monks, stood the dwelling of the 
 founder. Other important erections were the writing room 
 or library, where the manuscripts were copied and kept, the 
 refectory, with kitchen attached, the bakery, and the work- 
 shops of the smith and the carpenter. The cultivation of 
 the soil, of which about a third was arable, necessitated the 
 erection of a cowstall, a mill driven by the water of a small 
 lake, a kiln, and a granary, which were placed outside the 
 rampart. A number of paths connected the rude hamlet 
 with the creeks that served as harbours for the numerous 
 craft, ranging from the wooden built longcB naves and the 
 cunicae, constructed of wickerwork covered with hides, down 
 to the small cobble or ferry-boat, by which the island com- 
 munity maintained intercourse with the outside world. 
 
 Before erecting his simple monastic village, Columba 
 paid a visit to his kinsman, Conall, the chief of the Scottish 
 colony in Argyle, who appears to have encouraged his plan 
 of settling on the island.! Two years later we find hnn 
 accompanied by two of his most celebrated followers, 
 Comgali and Cainech, seeking admittance to the residence 
 of the Pictish king, Brude, on the banks of the Ness. ^ One 
 motive of this visit was, according to Baeda,+ to obtain the 
 royal assent to, or rather, perhaps, confirmation of the 
 
 * Rhys, " Arthurian Legend," p. 369. + See Tighernach, under date 574. 
 + " Ilist. Eccl.," iii. 3. 
 
156 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 possession of lona, but a still more momentous one was to 
 pave the way for the missionary activity on which he was 
 bent. His foresight and his experience among the Celtic 
 tribes of Erin would suggest to him this mode of procedure, 
 as best fitted to realise his scheme of the evangelisation of 
 a whole people. The favour and co-operation of the king 
 were an indispensable condition of effective success. 
 
 His reception was not at first encouraging, but his 
 intrepid bearing, heightened by his unswerving faith, won 
 for him the respect of the superstitious chief This 
 favourable impression on the royal mind was not shared 
 by the ministers of the pagan cult, who apparently occu- 
 pied an influential position in the Pictish court. They 
 possessed neither the culture nor the elaborate priestly 
 system of the Gaulish priests, whom Ciesar describes by the 
 same name of Druids.* They resemble rather the witch 
 doctor of modern barbarian tribes — the ministers of a 
 system of magic — priests of a sort of nature-worship, which, 
 while it had its festival days, as the bonfires that heralded 
 the advent of spring and autumn, not yet extinct in some 
 parts of the north, remind us, was now, whatever it may 
 have been at an earlier time, largely an affair of charms and 
 spells. Its only sacred places were the solitude of nature 
 — wells, fountains, and forest. Of temples and sacrifices 
 there is no hint in Adamnan ; still it had the force of 
 custom behind it, and the jealousy of a rival influence, on 
 the part of its ministers, would not be overcome without a 
 struggle, apparently long protracted, to undermine it. " As 
 the saint was engaged, along with his companions," says 
 Adamnan, evidently referring to the occasion of his first 
 visit to Brude, " in chanting the evening service outside the 
 royal fort, some Druids t coming near to them did all they 
 could to prevent God's praises being sung in the midst of a 
 pagan nation. On seeing this the saint began to sing the 
 44th Psalm, and so wonderfully loud, like pealing thunder, 
 did his voice become, that king and people were struck with 
 terror and amazement." Evidently a case of a new super- 
 
 * The word "Druids" always appears in Celtic lore synonymous with 
 the Latin Ma^i, magicians. 
 
 + The leader of this opposition, Broichan, figures on different occasions 
 as the champion of paganism. 
 
THE CONVERSION OF KING BRUDE. 1 5/ 
 
 stition growing up on the strength of the old, but with far 
 nobler elements of life and teaching in it, which gradually, 
 but very gradually, let us remember, worked their way into 
 the minds of a rude people. The pious phraseology in 
 which many ecclesiastical historians, whose style is coloured 
 by the language of the pulpit, describe the change from 
 paganism to Christianity, as if it were a thorough-going 
 conversion to the truth — a complete breaking away from 
 past usages — is a mere assumption in favour of a precon- 
 ceived idea. The transformation wrought by such childish 
 episodes as these could not be very deep. It is not thus 
 that truths take possession of the inquiring mind. To 
 King Brude and his followers, Columba appeared simply as 
 a more skilful magician than Broichan and his brethren, and 
 the profusion of such stories, in which the new Gospel makes 
 headway by the aid of some trifling fancy, shows how little 
 the mind was freed from the influence of past ideas. Col- 
 umba was a preacher richly gifted with the eloquence of his 
 countrymen, and he took diligent advantage of such im- 
 pressions in his favour to explain " the Word " to his pagan 
 listeners. But his own commanding personality, aided by 
 the fancied magic of some trifling incident, had more power 
 on minds, which were susceptible to such influences, while 
 incapable of grasping the spiritual teaching of the Gospel. 
 The saint himself, like all these zealous missionaries, was 
 not above the crude realistic ideas of his time. Adamnan, 
 in some cases, is doubtless reporting the belief that subse- 
 quently grew up around .some incident, but the belief of his 
 age estimates more or less that of a century earlier. An 
 intellectual transformation in any wide sense such a conver- 
 sion certainly was not ; yet the acceptance of a more spiritual 
 system, while it may not be, from the standpoint of a more 
 enlightened age, synonymous with truth, makes for progress 
 in thought and life, and in this sense we may regard the 
 conversion of King Brude, which dates from this visit.* 
 
 Columba's life in the subsequent prosecution of his aim 
 
 is rich in incident, and some of these throw a sombre light 
 
 on the social condition of the rude tribes of the north. 
 
 His track is frequently marked by the outrage and desola- 
 
 * "Chronicle of Plcts and Scots," p. 7. 
 
158 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 tion that accompanied the feuds of contending clans, or the 
 violence of the marauder. Forest and secluded glen flare 
 forth, in burning hut and hamlet, the tidings of lawlessness 
 and strife, and the silence of the night is broken by the 
 wail of the starving fugitives, driven forth to seek shelter 
 from murder or slavery. The following two incidents illus- 
 trate those scenes of pillage and cruelty, amid which the 
 intrepid missionary pursued his mission of peace and 
 righteousness. " When the saint," says Adamnan, " was 
 staying in that district which is called in the Scotic tongue 
 Coire Salchain,* the peasants came to him. One evening, 
 when he noticed one of them approaching, he said to him, 
 'Where dost thou live?' 'I live,' said he, 'in that dis- 
 trict which borders the shore of Lake Crogreth ' (Loch 
 Creran). ' That district of which thou speakest,' replied 
 the saint, ' is now being pillaged by savage marauders.' 
 On hearing this, the unhappy peasant began to lament his 
 wife and children, but when the saint saw him so much 
 afflicted, he consoled him, saying, ' Go, my poor man, go, 
 thy whole family hath escaped by flight to the mountains, 
 but thy cattle, furniture, and other effects, the ruthless 
 marauders have taken off with their unjust spoils.' When 
 the poor man heard these words he went home, and found 
 that all had happened exactly as the saint had foretold." 
 On another occasion he comes to a small village, lying 
 amid deserted fields, on the banks of a river where it flows 
 into a lake. " There the saint took up his abode, and that 
 same night, while they were yet but falling asleep, he 
 awoke his companions and said to them, ' Go out this 
 instant with all speed, bring hither quickly the boat you left 
 on the other side of the stream, and put it in a house near 
 us.' They did at once as they were directed, and soon 
 after they had again fallen asleep, the saint aroused Diormit, 
 and said to him, ' Stand outside the door and see what has 
 happened to the village in which you had left }'Our boat.' 
 Diormit went out accordingly, and saw the whole village on 
 fire, and returning to the saint he told him what was taking 
 place. Then the saint told the brethren the name of the 
 rancorous foe who had burned the houses that night." 
 
 * Corry in Morvern. 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE EPISODES. 1 59 
 
 Other episodes illustrate with equal vividness the event- 
 ful character of those toilsome journeys of the missionary 
 preacher from hamlet to hamlet, that clustered on some lake 
 islet, or nestled in some secluded glen amid " the steep and 
 rugged mountains," whose " savage aspect " had stayed the 
 advance of the Roman, and seemed to Baeda* the imper- 
 sonation of inaccessible grandeur. While sojourning in the 
 wilds of Lochaber he finds a poor man, who, with his wife and 
 children, is at the point of starvation, and after supplying 
 their wants out of his scanty store, he blesses the branch of 
 a tree, which thereafter acquires the reputation of being 
 able to protect its owner against wild animals, and bring 
 him an unbounded supply of venison. In the same district 
 he rewards the hospitality with which he was treated by 
 another poor man by some substantial mark of thanks, 
 which tradition transformed into the impossible boon of 
 turning five small heifers into twenty times as many cows. 
 The hostility and inhospitality of another individual — a 
 certain rich man — call forth the prediction that his son 
 shall die a violent death as a beggar. In the island of 
 Hinba.t whither he had gone to excommunicate "some 
 destroyers of the churches," his life is for a moment 
 endangered by the attack of one of the sons of King 
 Conall, but the spear of his assailant is unable to penetrate 
 the garment of the monk who throws himself in front of 
 the saint. In the battle in which he is slain in the follow- 
 ing year by the dart of Cronan, " .shot in the name of 
 Columba," we see the trace of opposition on the part of the 
 lawless portion of the inhabitants — both Scotic and Pictish:|: 
 — inspired by their marauding habits, if not by their anti- 
 Christian attitude. His interference on behalf of a certain 
 Columban, to whose humble board he had once been made 
 welcome, and who had been plundered by the brother of 
 
 * "Hist. Eccl.,"iii. 4. 
 
 t Garveloch Islands, one of the group of. 
 
 Jin the "Life of Conigall," for instance, we read that one day while 
 working in a field near the monastery he had founded in the island of Tiree 
 (Heth), a number of Pictish plunderers landed, and seizing everything they 
 could lay their hands on, including the monks, carried them away to their 
 ship. Comgall's prayers, however, brings shipwreck upon them, and they 
 deliver up their plunder. 
 
l6o CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 the former, brings upon him the jeers of the robber. In 
 obedience to the curse of the angry saint, his boat is en- 
 gulfed in the waves. On another occasion he interferes on 
 behalf of a female slave, and compels Broichan, her Druid 
 master, who sees in the illness which seizes him an evidence 
 of the divine vengeance in answer to Columba's prayers, to 
 release her. Again he succeeds in discomfiting the Druids, 
 who evidently always came off second best in measuring their 
 magic arts against the superior powers of Columba, by 
 banishing the demons of the old superstition from a certain 
 fountain to which divine honours were offered, and consecrat- 
 ing it to the service of the new. Again, Broichan is forced 
 to resign his command of the elements before the saint's 
 intrepid faith. "Tell me, Columba," said he, " when dost 
 thou purpose to set sail ? " " After three days, if God 
 permits me, and preserves my life." " On the con- 
 trary," said Broichan, '' thou shalt not be able, for I can 
 make the winds unfavourable to thy voyage, and cause a 
 great darkness to envelop thee in its shade." " The 
 almighty power of God," returned the saint, " ruleth all 
 things, and under His guiding providence all our move- 
 ments are directed." " What more need I say ?" asks his bio- 
 grapher. " That same day the saint, accompanied by a 
 large number of followers, went to the long lake of the 
 river Nesa (Loch Ness), as he had determined. Then the 
 Druids began to exult, seeing that it had become very dark, 
 and the wind was very violent and contrary. Our Columba, 
 therefore, called on Christ the Lord, and embarked in his 
 small boat, and whilst the sailors hesitated, he the more 
 confidently ordered them to raise the sails against the 
 wind. No sooner was the order executed, while the crowd 
 was looking on, than the vessel ran against the wind with 
 extraordinary speed, and after a short time the wind veered 
 round to help them on their voyage, to the intense astonish- 
 ment of all. And thus throughout the remainder of that day 
 the light breeze continued most favourable, and the skiff of 
 the blessed man was carried safely to the wished-for haven." 
 Evidently the knowledge of natural causes, I may remark in 
 passing, was as alien to the spirit of Columban Christianity 
 as to the paganism over which its superior magic triumphed. 
 
METHOD OK WORK, l6l 
 
 It is impossible to follow the track of Columba in any- 
 thincj like consecutive fashion during the long period of this 
 eventful captivity. Nor is it necessary for my purpose, 
 which is to reflect, through the more salient features of his 
 life and work, the culture which he impressed upon the 
 Northern Picts. Such incidental glimpses are not un- 
 suggestive from this point of view. He doubtless continued 
 to pursue, in his dealings with the various clans, the plan 
 of operation which we see in the interview with King 
 Brude. The Celt, naturally impetuous and uncontrollable, 
 but capable, when swayed by the sentiments of affection or 
 gratitude, of the most unwavering devotion to his leader, in 
 contrast to the law-abiding yet self-dependent Saxon, was 
 peculiarly susceptible to the influence of the head of the 
 clan. The same motive which drew Columba to the strong- 
 hold of the Pictish king, would therefore direct the course of 
 his subsequent wanderings throughout the country. It is 
 to influence of this kind that we must look for the partial 
 explanation of the spread of Christianity throughout the 
 ancient world. " As the lower ranks of society are governed 
 by imitation, the conversion of those who possessed any 
 eminence of birth, or power, or of riches, was soon followed 
 by dependent multitudes."* Besides, the fort or dun of the 
 district chieftain was very probably the centre of a con- 
 siderable population. Reasons both of policy and conveni- 
 ence would thus guide the steps of the missionary thither, 
 and this supposition is confirmed by the ancient legend in 
 the " Book of Deer," which purports to give an account of 
 the circumstances of the foundation of that Church. 
 
 Columba and his companion Drostan having obtained 
 from Bede the Pict, mormaer or chief of Buchan, the dona- 
 tion of Aberdobboir (Aberdour), situated in what was 
 evidently even at that time a populous district, crave the 
 gift of another town, " which was pleasing to Columba 
 because it was full of the grace of God "—a touch which 
 reveals the resemblance recognised by him in the oak woods 
 around Deer f to his old foundations amid the groves of 
 
 * Gibbon, chap, xx., 269; cf. v., p. 116. 
 
 t The true derivation of Deer is, according to Dr Stuart (Preface to " Book 
 of Deer "), daire, an oak, not dcara, tears, as the legend has it. 
 
 L 
 
1 62 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 Derry or Durrow. This request is at first refused, but 
 afterwards granted on the recovery of the chiefs son from 
 a dangerous iUness, through the prayers of the holy men. 
 Such a grant we may confidently regard as an example of 
 other benefactions of the same kind by influential patrons, 
 whose favour the sagacious missionary had taken pains to 
 secure. One of these is mentioned in the poem of a con- 
 temporary.* He was no less a personage than the chief of 
 the Southern Picts, Gartnaidh, and successor of King Brude, 
 who died in 584, in the supreme power. By the aid of his 
 influence, Columba strove to revive the decayed church of 
 Ninian. The best evidence of his success is the establish- 
 ment of a monastic church at Abernethy, the traditional 
 site of an earlier foundation.! Adamnan mentions the 
 existence of numerous such monastic churches,;]: which were 
 thus planted in the more populous districts throughout the 
 country. They were placed under the care of monks from 
 lona, and became in their turn the base of aggressive work 
 in the neighbourhood. If we may judge the extent of his 
 labours from the numerous monastic and missionary founda- 
 tions that owed their origin to him during his brief career 
 in Ireland, we may conclude that throughout the thirty- 
 four }'ears that elapsed between his arrival in lona and his 
 death, the zeal of Columba and his many coadjutors had 
 dotted the country, the more inaccessible districts excepted, 
 from Caithness to the Clyde, and from the Hebrides to 
 Buchan, with the humble monuments of Christian teaching 
 and worship. Others were founded by Irish monks, contem- 
 poraries of Columba, though not connected with lona, whose 
 love of seclusion, or religious fervour, led them to visit the 
 mainland of Alba audits islands. Moluoghad evangelised 
 Lismore before the advent of Columba ; and St Brendan, 
 the famous voyager and founder of the monastery of Clon- 
 fert, is said to have " laid out a church and village" in the 
 island of Tiree, and at a place called Ailech — perhaps 
 Alyth in Perth.shire. The work of St Finbarr, or Finnian, 
 his early master at Moville, is commemorated in Barra, to 
 
 * Dalian Forgail, author of the " Amra Columcille." 
 
 t Sec " Chron. Picts and Scots,"' p. 201. 
 
 I 15ook ii., c. 47 ; cf. Breda " Hist. Eccl.," iii. 4. 
 
SUPERFICIAL FORM OF CHRISTIANITY. 1 63 
 
 which he gave his name, while that of Ronan still lingers 
 in St Ronans in Lewis, and in the lonely islet of Rona, 
 fifty miles to the north of it. Traces of the labours of 
 the martyred Donnan and of Finlagan remain in Eigg 
 and Islay. The presence of St Cainnech is distinguish- 
 able in Kilkenneth and Kilchenzie, a common name 
 of churches in Argyleshire and the western islands ; 
 and legend speaks of him as having a hermitage at the 
 modern St Andrews. Regulus is also associated with 
 the latter place, by a tradition which afterwards under- 
 went great elaboration,* in order to make him the bearer 
 of the relics of St Andrew from Constantinople in the 
 time of King Angus. Comgall, famous in Irish annals 
 as the first abbot of Bangor and its celebrated school, 
 was also remembered in Alba as the founder of a church 
 in Tiree.-f- 
 
 In estimating the results of Columba's work, seconded 
 by the occasional efforts of such zealous missionaries, it 
 must be borne in mind, as already pointed out, that the 
 direct effects of his mission were largely superficial. To 
 the crude minds of his converts, the sublime mysteries and 
 practical teachings of Christianity must have presented 
 themselves in a form more or less coloured by the ideas and 
 practices of the ancient cult. It is a superficial form of 
 Christianity — a system of impressions, often puerile, rather 
 than definite conceptions — that is spread by missionary 
 activity of this kind, whether in the sixth or the nineteenth 
 century. But we must recognise the influence of a moulding 
 mind in Columba. This significance we may read into the 
 words of Baeda,:]: that " he converted the Pictish nation to 
 the faith of Christ by his preaching and example ; " and the 
 effect of his intercession on King Brude on behalf of Cor- 
 mac, who had sailed to the north " to discover a desert § in 
 the ocean," and whom the king recommends to the pro- 
 tection of the barbaric ruler of the Orkneys, can only be 
 
 * "Celtic Scot.," ii. 26S. 
 
 + "Vita Comgalli,"c. 22. 
 
 t "Hist. Ecci.,"iii. 4. 
 
 § The abode of the members of a monastic community, who wished to lead 
 a solitary life, was called a " desert," from the Latin, Deserttun. St ^Tartin 
 also sought such a " desert " on an isle near Albenga. 
 
164 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 ascribed to one who wielded a commanding power over the 
 minds of a rude people.* 
 
 In the adventurous voyages of this Cormac, we sec an 
 evidence of that spirit of adventure, which Walafrid Strabo 
 notes as a second nature in the case of the Scotic monks, 
 combined with that delight in weird isolation, so congenial 
 to the temperament of the Celt, which bore the new civilisa- 
 tion of Ireland and lona to the furthest islands of the 
 Hebrides, and to the remote Iceland,-f- if not to the shores 
 of America itself. Three times Cormac sets sail from his 
 native Erin, and steers his frail coracle far over the track- 
 less waves — on the third occasion, for fourteen days before 
 a south wind — in search of absolute solitude, regardless of 
 the perils of storm and want, in his eagerness to gain the 
 merit of this self-denying form of the ascetic life. The 
 heaps of loose stones on such remote islands as North Rona, 
 in the North Atlantic, far out of reach of human dwelling, 
 which, when examined, were found to be the remains of 
 some hermit cell, " presenting the earliest type of Christian 
 construction remaining in Scotland," :|: still testify to the 
 mistaken but adamantine piety that braved the tempests 
 of the open ocean and courted the isolation of some wild 
 inhospitable rock. Doubtless the missionary would go 
 hand in hand with the ascetic spirit, and the hazardous 
 voyages of a Baitan, a Cormac, or a Brendan, would extend 
 to many of the more remote of the western isles the higher 
 life and teaching, which Columba was endeavouring to 
 spread on the mainland. 
 
 From the missionary activity of Columba and his 
 coadjutors, I turn to the monastic community at lona over 
 which he presided, and whose character reflects the main 
 outlines of the early Christian culture which originated 
 from this source. The chief figure is that of the abbot, 
 who wielded authority, not onl)- o\cr the members of the 
 
 * The " Old Irish Life" extended his sphere of labour to the Britons and the 
 Saxons, " whom he brought to faith and religion, after he had wrought many 
 miracles, anil awakened the dead from death." A Saxon baker is mentioned 
 as an inmate of lona. 
 
 + The Norwegians found, in the ninth century, in Iceland relics of the early 
 Irish missionaries. 
 
 X Anderson, " .Scotland in Early Christian Times," i., p. 125. 
 
RULE OF COLUMCILLE. 16$ 
 
 island community, but over all the monasteries founded 
 both in Scotia and Alba by himself or his monks.* The 
 presence of a bishop is noted on several occasions, but 
 while the abbot accords him the honour due to the exercise 
 of the function of ordination, he appears subject to his 
 jurisdiction,-}- and is not the superior dignitary — the head of 
 a diocese, to whom all ranks and institutions within its 
 boundaries are subordinated — that the bishop in other 
 Christian lands had come to be. In the missionary and 
 monastic aims of a Columba, a hierarchy of presbyters, under 
 himself as superintendent,;]: but with room left for the 
 exercise of the episcopal office in the matter of ordination, 
 was all that was contemplated, and adapted from reasons of 
 its suitableness, apart from any nervous anxiety about 
 its formal propriety. The inmates of the monastery, of 
 whatever rank, who took the vow on bended knee in the 
 oratory, were subject to a code of rules,§ by which 
 discipline was maintained. A rule of Columcille, containing 
 a number of precepts principally applicable to a solitary 
 life, has been preserved, but it is probable that the early 
 Irish Church did not possess any system of discipline like 
 that elaborated by a Benedict. The members were divided 
 into seniors and juniors, the former comprising those of 
 tried wisdom and piety, the latter such as were under 
 training for the higher grade. In addition to the daily 
 religious exercises, the abbot occasionally summoned the 
 brethren to church by the sound of the bell in the middle of 
 the night, and addressed them from the altar. Manual 
 labour — the cultivation of the soil, gardening,|| fishing, the 
 care of the cows, the crafts of the blacksmith, carpenter, 
 
 * The mention by Adamnan of his visits to his earlier Irish foundations, as 
 well as to those on Tiree and Clachan, shows this. 
 
 t Ba:da, "Hist. Eccl.," iii. 4. C/. Adamnan, whose references warrant 
 this conclusion. 
 
 J In the Church of St Patrick, however, the bishop is the principal figure, 
 and their number is remarkable, resembling in this respect the Western Church 
 of the first four centuries. In the Irish Church of Columba's day the monastic 
 element predominated. 
 
 § Referred to by Wilfrid in his famous dispute with Colman at the vSynod 
 of Whitby. 
 
 II Adamnan mentions Laisren the gardener, — the founder, I suppose, of 
 Scotland's pre-eminence in this art. 
 
l66 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 &c. — was shared by all, the abbot himself setting an 
 example by carrying his own portion of corn to the mill 
 and grinding it,* although the heavier portion fell to those, 
 of which there was a large number connected with these 
 early monasteries, whose meagre acquirements unfitted them 
 for the higher duties of the presbyter. On admission to 
 the monastery, the novice undertook to practise celibacy, 
 and placed all his property at the disposal of his brethren, 
 on the ground that "it is not befitting a religious life to 
 have any distinction of property with his own free brother." 
 The sense of obedience is apparent in their readiness to 
 undertake a long journey, or a hazardous voyage, at the 
 abbot's command, and in the conception of their calling as 
 "soldiers of Christ." An open door was kept for strangers 
 and travellers. The pages of Adamnan contain pleasing 
 instances of the hospitable greetings that resounded from 
 the little harbour ; while almsgiving, and the care of the 
 deserving poor and the sick, who resorted to lona for 
 medical aid, form the burden of two expressive precepts, 
 often thus sympathetically exemplified in the generosity of 
 the abbot and his monks. Transgression of the vows of 
 the monastic life was atoned for by penance, which, in the 
 case of the criminals and delinquents of all kinds who came 
 from Ireland to confess to the saint, extended to as much 
 as seven or even twelve years' sojourn in some island, such 
 as Elachnave, with perpetual exile from their native land, 
 in some cases. One wretch who had been guilty of a 
 heinous offence was debarred from landing on the island. 
 The practice of the deeper principles of piety is expressed 
 in the injunction to the love of God and our neighbour, 
 and the cultivation of a forgi\ing, devotional spirit. 
 Though great stress is laid on trifling external perfections, 
 the impression we get from the pages of Adamnan is that 
 of a cheerful, even life, earnest and strict of purpose, but 
 one whose monotony is relieved by the easy, kindly inter- 
 course of the monks with the abbot and with each otherj 
 and whose bent was largely towards the practical and 
 useful. The effect of such a settlement on the morals of a 
 barbarian people must be regarded as not the least 
 
 •"Olil Irish Life." 
 
"A PUPIL LEARNING WISDOM." 16/ 
 
 meritorious characteristic of such an institution. Nor did 
 
 the devotion of the cloister deaden their interest in the 
 
 outside world. The arrival of a boat from Scotia was 
 
 always an event of keen interest, bringing with it the 
 
 welcome tale of men and affairs in beloved Erin ; and even 
 
 "the yarns" of the captain and crew of a large trader, which 
 
 had arrived in the neighbourhood from Gaul, sent a thrill 
 
 of worldly curiosity through the souls of the saint and his 
 
 brethren. lona was not so isolated from the rest of Europe 
 
 as is usually asserted. The emigration of Irish monks from 
 
 Bangor, Clonard, and other great seminaries, to Gaul, 
 
 Germany, and Switzerland, headed by Columbanus, began 
 
 towards the end of the sixth century. lona too sent its 
 
 missionaries to found some of those Celtic monasteries on 
 
 the Continent, like Wurzburg, which afterwards became 
 
 celebrated as a centre of religious and intellectual life. 
 
 Less than half a century after Columba's death, we find its 
 
 abbot in correspondence with Rome, one of the presbyters 
 
 to whom Pope Honorius writes on the Easter controversy 
 
 being Segenius of lona (623-652).* 
 
 A fruitful germ of intellectual culture existed in the 
 school, in which the influence of education, if not of know- 
 ledge in the modern sense, was at work. Mention is made 
 of one Berchan, " a pupil learning wisdom," and though the 
 wisdom was largely only that of a superstitious age, it is a 
 sign of intellectual activity of a kind. It embraced the know- 
 ledge of the Scriptures, especially the Psalms, which were 
 committed to memory. Latin certainly,and Greek probably, 
 were taught. Columbanus, the first of the Celtic missionaries 
 to Gaul, and in part a contemporary of Columba, was 
 acquainted, not merely with the classic tongues, but with 
 Hebrew, for he gives the equivalents of his name in these 
 languages to those who asked him whence he came. " I 
 am a Scottish pilgrim," he told them, " and my speech and 
 actions correspond to my name, which is in Hebrew, 
 Jonah ; in Greek, Peristera ; and in Latin, Columba, a 
 dove." He and his companions spoke Latin fluently, as 
 the clerical language of the west. lona, as the head of so 
 many religious houses in Ireland and so many mission 
 
 * Bceda, ii., c. 19. 
 
168 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 branches in Alba, would not be behind the more famous of 
 the Irish schools in this respect, especially since its founder 
 laid stress on literary and intellectual activity. The 
 reputation of Baithene, his successor, for knowledge of the 
 Scriptures and extensive learning was, according to tradition, 
 unequalled on this side the Alps.* History was not 
 neglected, though it might be confined to the lives of 
 distinguished saints t and the traditions of the past. In 
 the case of a monastery whose abbot was himself no mean 
 poet, and who evidently took delight in the songs which 
 the poet Cronan accompanied with his lyre, the poetry of 
 the bards very likely formed a subject of instruction. The 
 ability to write on waxed tablets, or on parchment, was 
 prized as a high accomplishment, and the scribe was held 
 in special honour. We frequently find Columba and 
 Baithene engaged in this occupation in the chamber where 
 the books and the ca/aini or grap/ii used in writing were kept. 
 The books thus produced seem to have been mostly copies 
 of portions of the Scriptures, but this does not preclude the 
 possibility of original authorship, — poems, homilies, a 
 chronicle of events connected with the monastery. Several 
 Latin and Gaelic poems exist which were ascribed to 
 Columba. This occupation, at all events, was evidently 
 more than a mechanical process ; it was regarded as an art, 
 and gave scope to the taste and aesthetic ingenuity of the 
 scribes. The excellence attained in it, judged from the 
 magnificent specimens preserved in the books of Durrow 
 and Kells, believed by competent authorities to touch the 
 age of Columba, reveals, in these early monks, the gift of an 
 exquisite artistic feeling, and contrasts strikingly with the 
 humble civilisation amid which they lived and worked. 
 Whilst the cells in which they dwelt and the churches in 
 which they worshipped were little in advance of the pagan 
 huts of their day, the illumination, the gorgeous orna- 
 mentation of the MSS. which they wrote, as well as the 
 delicately wrought ornament work of bells, brooches, &c., 
 
 * Montalemhcrt, " Monks of ihc West," iii. 214. 
 
 t Adaninan's familiarity with such literature is proved by a reference to the 
 " Life of (k-rmanus " (ii. 35), and he mentions, in relating an incident in the 
 saint's life at lona (iii. 13), a part of the service in which the name of St 
 Martin is commemorated. 
 
"A COLOSSUS." 169 
 
 are worthy, as \vc shall see in another chapter, of a refined 
 civilisation. Rude they were these monks in their ways, and 
 puerile, nay senile, in much of their belief, but there was a 
 noble enthusiasm in their souls which made them heroes in 
 the mission field, and an exuberance of fancy, a sense of 
 the supernatural, which, while it made them the victims of 
 a strange medley of religious phantasms, gave an impulse 
 to the higher strivings of the soul. 
 
 The personality of Columba has left a deep impression 
 on the history of his adopted country. It must have done 
 so had there been no Adamnan to record his miracles, 
 prophecies, and visions.* Of him it may be truly said, that 
 he found his vocation and fulfilled it. With a tall com- 
 manding figure, he combined a voice of such extraordinary 
 strength and clearness, that he could be heard chanting the 
 Psalms at a distance of more than a mile, and on one 
 occasion it sounded " like pealing thunder " in the ears of 
 the affrighted Druids. His career is expressive of the 
 energy of thought and will that can conceive and execute 
 vast schemes. As Cassius says of Caesar, we may say of 
 him, " He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus." 
 He was the most influential man of his time in Erin and 
 Alba, whose word was sufficient to depose or appoint kings, 
 and whose opinion was regarded in the light of a divine 
 dictum. As M. de Coulanges says, " The life of a saint 
 was not at all the life of a monk ; — c'est presque toujours 
 la vie d'un homme qui s'est occupe des affaires publiques 
 et a ete en relations incessantes avec les rois et les grands 
 de la terre." Rhydderch Hael, king of Strathclyde, sends 
 to know his future fate. Aidan, king of Dalriada, receives 
 his kingdom from him, and consults him regarding his 
 successor. At the council or parliament of Drumceatt his 
 intercession obtains the release of Scanlan, a noble captive ; 
 the virtual independence of the Scottish kingdom of Dal- 
 riada in Argyleshire, between whose inhabitants and the 
 Irish monarch there was considerable friction ; and favour- 
 able terms for the bards, whose exactions had brought 
 upon them the threat of banishment.-f- No doubt he owed 
 
 * His work is divided into three parts, respectively dealing with these subjects, 
 t Preface to the " Amra Columcille." 
 
I/O CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 part of the influence which he thus wielded to his royal 
 descent, and to the reputation for sanctity which was 
 believed to confer on him miraculous gifts. 15ut it was 
 likewise the result of an impassioned intensity of soul. 
 " He so preserved the integrity of his body and the purity 
 of his mind," says his biographer, "that though dwelling on 
 earth he appeared to live like the saints in heaven. He 
 never could spend the space of one hour without study or 
 prayer, or writing, or some other holy occupation. So 
 incessantly was he engaged night and day in the unwearied 
 exercise of fasting and watching, that the burden of each 
 of these austerities would seem beyond the power of all 
 human endurance." " There was not born of the Ghaedil," 
 remarks the preacher in the " Old Irish Life," " one more 
 illustrious, or more wise, or of better family, than Columba. 
 There came not of them any person more modest or more 
 humble." With his fervid monkish piety was mingled a 
 strong touch of human affection. His parting with the 
 companion of his wanderings, Drostan, at the monastery 
 of Deer melts the austere saint into tears. A crane, driven 
 exhausted by the storm upon the beach of lona, is tended 
 until it regains strength sufficient to fly back to its native 
 Erin. On the departure of his aged uncle, Conan, to pre- 
 side over the monastery in Elachnave, he embraces him 
 affectionately, and looks after him with the remark, "This 
 friend of mine who is now going away I never expect to 
 see alive again in this world." " After a few days the same 
 Conan became very unwell, and desired to be taken back 
 to the saint, who was much rejoiced at his return, and set 
 out for the harbour to meet him. Conan, though feeble, 
 attempted without assistance to walk half way, but when 
 there was only the short distance of twenty-four paces 
 between them, death came suddcnl}' upon him before the 
 saint could greet him alive, and he breathed his last as he 
 fell to the ground." His Celtic impetuosity of temper 
 could ill brook opposition or injury, and broke out at times 
 in a torrent of curses. He was as vindictive as he was 
 ira.sciblc, if we may judge from his pleasure at the death of 
 a marauder whom he had pursued into the sea, and whose 
 boat was capsized b)' the waves. His fertile imagination is 
 
TEiMTER AND IMAGINATION. I7I 
 
 attested by the visions which opened to him the vista of 
 the unseen. Now he receives the visit of an<^els ; now he 
 toils in battle with a host of demons ; now he feels himself 
 transported to heaven by celestial guides. This mystic 
 imaginative tendency finds a congenial environment in that 
 strange, weird old world, with its haunted solitudes, its 
 realistic beliefs, contrasting so strikingly with the practical, 
 intellectual world of to-day, but lending a singular fascina- 
 tion to the religion of that time. 
 
1/2 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CELTIC MISSIONARY IN NORTIIUMBRIA. 
 
 UNDER Columba's successors in the jurisdiction of 
 the monastery of lona and its numerous dependent 
 churches in Alba and Scotia, his mission among 
 the Picts was continued and consolidated. The martyrdom 
 of Donnan and the community over which he presided in 
 the island of Eigg (617), who were consumed in the flames 
 of the wooden church, to which they had retired to celebrate 
 the eucharist, discloses the continued presence of a hostile 
 pagan element in the north-west. The efforts of Talor- 
 gain, who died a year before this tragic event, to extend 
 the Christian faith in the north-east, have been preserved 
 in the name Kiltarlity — the district extending from the 
 Ness to Ross-shire.* More than half a century elapsed, 
 however, before the remote country in the far north was 
 successfully Christianised by St Maelrubha, founder of the 
 church of Applecross, and by Comgan and Fillan in the 
 district between Lochalsh and Loch Sunart. We can only 
 add to such meagre details as these, recorded by the Irish 
 annalist Tighcrnach, or extracted from the names of places, 
 the general statement of the monk of Jarrow as to the 
 spirit and labours of Columba's immediate successors. 
 They were distinguished " by their great charit)', divine 
 love, and strict attention to discipline. They followed, in- 
 deed, uncertain cycles in their computation of Easter (a 
 great point with Bneda), yet they diligently observed such 
 works of piety and charity as they could find in the gospels 
 and in the writings of the prophets and apostles."! 
 
 Under Seghine a new period of missionary activity 
 began, which found a field for its exercise among the 
 heathen Angles of Northumbria, antl whicli for thirty years 
 made the influence of the Scottish missionaries supreme, 
 from the remote islands of the Hebrides as far as the 
 * "Celtic .Scotland," ii., p. 153. + B^vda, " Mist. Eccl.," iii. 4. 
 
lONA AND THE OUTSIDE WORLD. 1 73 
 
 Humber. By the settlement of Ai'dan on Lindisfarne, the 
 obscurity of the Columban Church amid the islands and 
 mountains of the north was dispelled. There was, as has 
 been pointed out, a lively interest in the monastery at 
 lona* in the affairs of the continental nations. The island 
 community was not wholly cut off from communication 
 with the larger world beyond the seas. Apart from the 
 arrival of an occasional voyager, whose tale of events and 
 persons in far-off lands stirred the Celtic soul, the travels 
 of Columbanus and other restless Celtic monks to Gaul, 
 Germany, and Switzerland were certainly known at lona. 
 Some of its inmates had doubtless by this time been stirred 
 by the desire to emulate the example of the founders of 
 Luxeuil and St Gall. But such communication with the 
 outside world must have been limited at the best. lona 
 was isolated from continental Christendom by the barrier of 
 the pagan Anglian kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira ; and it 
 was the enthusiastic response which it made to the invita- 
 tion of the Northumbrian king, Oswald, to instruct his 
 subjects in the Christian faith, which he himself had learned 
 when living in exile in the north, that brought it into much 
 closer touch with the complex life of the age, as well as 
 secured it an enduring monument to its fame in the 
 luminous pages of Baeda. 
 
 The pagan people whom the Columban monks were 
 invited to Christianise, was the Teutonic conquerors whom 
 we have already seen in such deadly conflict with the 
 population of the Roman province. They had already 
 penetrated, under the warlike predecessors of Oswald, as 
 far north as the Forth. The name of the modern Scottish 
 capital testifies to the extent of the sway of /Edwin. The 
 resistance of the combined Scots and Cumbrian Britons 
 had been shattered at Degsastane (603) by a decisive 
 victory of the Anglian invader under /Ethelfrith, who 
 united the two petty states of Deira and Bernicia into the 
 kingdom of Northumbria, extending from the Forth to the 
 
 * Tlie legends of Columba's visit to Pope Gregory, and of his pilgrim- 
 age to St Martin's shrine at Tours, although possessing no foundation in 
 fact, may contain an echo of intercourse between lona and Ireland on the 
 one hand, and Gaul and Italy on the other, at this early time. 
 
174 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 Mumber. Four years later, the defeat which the same king 
 inflicted on the western Britons at the battle of Chester, 
 extended his dominions from sea to sea, and laid the 
 foundation of that supremacy which Northumbria enjoyed 
 in the north, and among the Saxon kingdoms, up till the 
 overthrow of Ecgfrith by the Picts at the battle of Nec- 
 tansmere (685). 
 
 Unlike the British Church, which was affected by the 
 spirit of bitterness and hatred towards the Saxon intruder, 
 the community at lona counted Saxons among its members, 
 and welcomed, besides Oswald and his brother Oswy, a 
 large number of the Northumbrian nobility, who accom- 
 panied the sons of /Ethelfrith into exile, on the accession of 
 yEdwin. To it belongs the merit of having done for the 
 people of Northumbria what Augustine and his successors 
 did for those of Kent and Wessex. 
 
 A recent writer* has laboured to establish the thesis 
 that these pagan invaders were not Germans, but North- 
 men. He thinks that only a seafaring race could have 
 colonised Britain, and that the only people fitted to do 
 this were the ancestors of the notorious vikings of 
 mediaeval times, who at a very early period were celebrated 
 for their maritime greatness. This proposition, which the 
 author defends with much learning, is against the historic 
 testimony of early writers, whether Saxon or British ; and 
 it is not enough to discredit this evidence by saying that 
 Gildas or Baida is unworthy of credence, when they describe 
 the advent of three Germanic tribes — the Saxons, Jutes, 
 and Angles — from the banks of the Elbe. While there is 
 reason to believe, as already pointed out, that the invaders 
 were not uninfluenced by the Roman culture which they 
 displaced, we shall not err, I think, if wc regard the culture 
 of these fierce colonists as, in its more salient features, that 
 described by Tacitus in his treatise on the manners of the 
 Germans, making allowance, however, for the modification, 
 probably not very far-reaching, which it had undergone 
 during the interval between the fifth and the first century. 
 Their institutions were those of martial, freedom-loving 
 barbarians, who, whilst following the leader of their choice 
 * Du Chaillii, " Tlie \'iking Age," chaps, i., ii., and iii. 
 
ANGLO-SAXON NATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE. 1 75 
 
 — a Hcngist, an /Ella, an Ida — retained, as the right of 
 each freeman, a voice — as a member of the scirmoot or 
 district council, and the witenagemoot or parliament of the 
 people — in the administration of justice, in the settlement of 
 public questions. Slavery was not unknown among them, 
 but the slaves were those conquered in war. Crime alone, 
 or absolute destitution, could deprive a freeman of his 
 rights, while those of women * were recognised and pro- 
 tected in a chivalrous spirit, altogether unique among bar- 
 barous peoples. The family was sacred to virtue, and the 
 moral education of the children excited the admiration of 
 Tacitus, who did not fail to improve the opportunity of 
 reading a lesson in this particular to his degenerate country- 
 men. Their institutions,*!- — based on the spirit of freedom, 
 — rendered strong by the healthy moral tone that prevailed 
 in the family, were those of a conquering race, destined to 
 overwhelm the empire both in Italy and the provinces. 
 
 This spirit of freedom — the mainspring of Anglo-Saxon 
 national life, before the encroachments of the kings and the 
 aristocratic class subverted the rights of the people, as was 
 the case in England at a later time — went hand in hand 
 with the spirit of reverence for the gods, which intimately 
 associated their religion with their national and social life. 
 Each freeman was the priest of his own family ,;[: and per- 
 formed under his own roof those rites which he was bound 
 to recognise by his presence on the occasion of some 
 elaborate public ceremonial. Like most peoples whose 
 mode of life removes them from the humanising influences 
 of the village and the city, the realism of the supernatural 
 was closely interwoven with the scenery amid which they 
 lived. The consciousness of a supernatural presence, under- 
 lying all things, took form in a medley of childlike fancies 
 embracing the beneficent and malignant powers of nature, 
 which the music of a Wagner now unfolds to us like a 
 poetic dream, in notes of hope and doubt, of wonder and 
 despair, but which was an absorbing reality, an eloquent 
 
 * See Tacitus, " Germania, ' chaps, xviii. and xix. 
 
 t The early Anglo-Saxon institutions have been exhaustively treated ]:)y 
 Kemble, Stubbs, Freeman, and Gneist. 
 t Tacitus, " Germania," chap. x. 
 
176 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 revelation, to the ruder minds, the untutored imaginations 
 of these Anglo-Saxon forefathers of ours. In storm and 
 battle, in the shaggy forest and the lonely moor, amid 
 spring's budding life and winter's gloom, with the mystery of 
 death and the silence and beauty of the great starry dome 
 above, uttering their never-ceasing appeal to the over- 
 whelmed soul of man, they felt the impress of a divine 
 power, interpreted it in their own childlike manner, and 
 evolved a mythological system,* which is richly poetic, if it 
 cannot claim to be a modern philosophy. In Woden and 
 Thor, Frea and Baldaeg, Hel and Xastrond, Grendel and 
 the Nicors, they sought to harmonise, to systematise that 
 mass of inexplicables, that tissue of marvels with which 
 nature and the experiences of life impress the mind. This 
 crude belief doubtless served to fulfil the highest vocation 
 of a religion — it afforded to generation after generation 
 inspiration in life and consolation in death. Tested b)' the 
 domestic virtues, and the spirit of courage and freedom 
 which it fostered, it passes examination better than other 
 religions of more pretentious claims to excellence. 
 
 It had, however, begun to lose its efficacy by the time 
 of the advent of the Celtic missionaries. The honest priest 
 Coifi, when asked his opinion at a council held by King 
 ^dwin to discuss the claims of Christianity I'ersus the 
 national cult, did not scruple to tell the truth. His devotion 
 to Woden and Thor had not been productive of result, and 
 the neglect of the hierarchy, which this implies, may be taken 
 as an index of widespread indifference among the people. 
 " None of your people, /Edwin, has worshipped the gods 
 more faithfully than I ; yet there are many who receive 
 greater favours from you, and are more fortunate and pros- 
 perous. Were these gods good for anything, they would 
 not have forgotten me, who have been careful to serve 
 them." The more reflective minds, impressed b}- the 
 mystery, the insignificance of existence, were naturall)- dis- 
 posed to accept a system which opened up so sublime a 
 prospect of eternal life and felicit)'. They found a spokes- 
 man in one of the chief men, who likened the present life, 
 
 * .See Grimm's " Deutsche Mythologie," and Simrock's " Ilandbuch der 
 Deutschen Mythologie." 
 
INDIFFERENCE AND SPECULATION. 177 
 
 in comparison to the unknown beyond it, to the swift flight 
 of a sparrow through the room, in which the king sits at 
 supper with his courtiers, while the bright fire burns in the 
 midst and the wintry storm rages without. " The sparrow, 
 I say, flying in at one door and immediately out at the other, 
 whilst he is within is safe from the wintry blast, but after a 
 short space of fair weather he vanishes out of your sight 
 into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life 
 of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, 
 or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. If therefore 
 this new doctrine contains something more certain, it 
 seems justly to deserve to be followed." Thus encouraged, 
 Paulinus, the chaplain of Edwin's Christian queen, Ethel- 
 burga, daughter of the King of Kent, found little difficulty 
 in enjoining the superior claims of Christianity. The 
 Witenacfemot was unanimous in favour of the change, 
 i^dwin was further influenced by success in battle against 
 the West Saxon king Cuichelm, which was ascribed to the 
 aid of the God of the Christians. Like the Franks, who 
 followed Clovis to the baptismal font as readily as to the 
 battlefield,* the Northumbrians were baptized, by the 
 thousand, by the zealous Paulinus. The liberality and 
 sagacity displayed by the Church of Rome, reflected in the 
 letter f of Pope Gregory to Augustine of Canterbury, in 
 which he directed him and his fellow-missionaries to con- 
 ciliate the prejudices of the Saxons by retaining the temples 
 as places of Christian worship, and as many of their religious 
 practices as were compatible with the spirit of Christianity, 
 likewise contributed to this result. 
 
 The six years between the conversion and death of ^-Edwin 
 form one of the most prosperous intervals that brighten the 
 troubled annals of Northumbria. Its supremacy was asserted 
 over the petty British and Saxon states in the south and west. 
 A revolt, headed by Penda, the king of Mercia, and Cad- 
 wallon, a powerful Welsh chieftain, resulted in its temporary 
 overthrow. ^Edwin was slain at the battle of Hethfield, near 
 Doncaster (633), and his territory exposed to the ravages of 
 invasion. The savage bigotry of the pagan Mercians found 
 
 * Gibbon, "Decline and Fall,"vi., p. 302. 
 t Boeda, " Hist. Eccl.," i., c. 30. 
 M 
 
178 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 a ready co-operation on the part of their British Christian 
 allies. The churches were wrecked or given to the flames, 
 the villages and homesteads pillaged and destroyed, large 
 numbers of both sexes, young and old, put to death ; and 
 after the flight of Paulinus and the queen to Kent, the work 
 of the past six years was largely undone. The kingdom 
 was again broken up into the two independent states — 
 Bernicia and Dcira — under Eanfrith and Osric. The renun- 
 ciation of the new faith, which appears to have followed, is 
 merely an example of what took place in most of the 
 Anglo-Saxon kingdoms on the death of the first Christian 
 monarch. The untutored mind would instinctively leap to 
 the conclusion, amid the calamities of invasion and ravage, 
 that there was no virtue in the God of the Christian, and 
 would see in the bloodshed and outrage, which filled the 
 land, a manifestation of the anger of the gods, whose temples 
 they had destroyed or dishonoured. Fear and perplexity 
 would thus drive crowds back to the old faith, whose 
 supremacy would be established as easily as it was over- 
 thrown. Before a year had passed, the weak rule of Osric 
 and Eanfrith, who had both turned apostate, was swept 
 away by Cadwallon, who seemed in a fair way of realising, 
 as far as Northumbria was concerned, his resolve to avenge 
 the wrongs of his race by the extermination of its Saxon 
 oppressors. But the progress of the British conqueror 
 received a check at the hands of Oswald, Eanfrith's brother, 
 who, advancing with a small force from the north, routed 
 the Ikitish army and slew its leader at Heavenfield, near 
 the Roman wall (634). This victory was regarded as a 
 triumph of the Christian faith that inspired it. On the eve 
 of the engagement Oswald caused a cross to be erected in 
 the presence of his army, himself holding it with both 
 hands, while his companions fixed it firmly in the earth. 
 " Let us kneel," said he, when the work was finished, "and 
 jointly beseech the true and living God Almighty in tlis 
 mercy to defend us from the haughty and fierce enemy, for 
 He knows that we have undertaken a just war for the safety 
 of our nation."* Then advancing, in the early dawn, in 
 sight of the sacred emblem, they swept their foes with great 
 
 * Baeda, " Hist. Keel.," ii., c. 20, ami iii., c. i .irnl 2. 
 
AIDAN AND OSWALD. 1 79 
 
 carnage before them, and thus conferred upon the spot the 
 sacredness long after associated with it, as the scene of the 
 victory of the cross and the deliverance of the kingdom. 
 
 Raised by this success to the throne of Northumbria, and 
 eager to restore Christianity, Oswald sent a messenger to 
 lona to invite the assistance of the Columban monks. 
 But where the sagacity and moderation of the Roman mis- 
 sionary had succeeded, the austerity of the Celtic monk 
 failed, and he soon returned to report the fruitlessness of 
 his attempts to overcome the obstinacy and barbarism of 
 the English. The disappointment and perplexity of the 
 brethren at this news were dispelled by the shrewdness of 
 Aidan. " I think," said he, " that you were more severe to 
 your unlearned hearers than you ought to have been, and 
 did not at first, conformably to the apostolic rule, give them 
 the milk of more easy doctrine, till being by degrees 
 nourished by the Word of God, they should be capable of 
 greater perfection, and be able to practise God's sublimer 
 precepts." The discernment of the speaker marked him 
 out as a suitable successor, and he was ordained missionary 
 bishop of Northumbria. On the island of Lindisfarne, 
 which was granted at his request by Oswald, he erected his 
 cell. Situated a few miles to the north of Bamborough, 
 the chief royal residence, and separated from the shore by 
 a channel two miles in breadth, which at ebb tide was 
 passable on foot, it was just such a spot as would attract a 
 Scottish monk, for whom its solitude, broken only by the 
 beating of the surf against the rock, possessed a peculiar 
 fascination. The thought of lona, which it would recall, 
 led him to see in it the fitting headquarters of the monastic 
 brotherhood, who erected their huts around the wooden 
 oratory, and added to their missionary labours the toils of 
 agriculture, or the pursuit of writing and study, according 
 to ability. The monastic community was thus a reproduc- 
 tion of that founded by Columba,* and Aidan's efforts to 
 evangelise the Northumbrians were carried on after the 
 same model. He turned, in the first instance, to the king's 
 
 * Except that its abbot was likewise bishop ; but the monastic, not the 
 episcopal feature of his character and of the institution, was the distinctive 
 characteristic. 
 
l8o CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 personal followers and the chief men of the country. Whilst 
 the founders of Christianity addressed themselves more to 
 the lower orders, and the creed of the early Church gradually 
 fought its way upwards till at length it took possession of 
 the imperial throne ; the process was reversed by the mis- 
 sionaries of a later age. The conversion of the higher 
 orders was the forerunner of that of the peasant. The 
 Christian bishop or monk absorbed the place of the heathen 
 priest at the royal court, and gradually throughout the 
 shires and " marks " of the kingdom. The efforts of king 
 and bishop were united in furthering the common object, 
 the former lending his sanction and the aid of his example 
 and his generosity to the striving of the latter; and while 
 Christianity gained, it paid back the benefit by placing the 
 monarch under the patronage of heaven, and enhancing 
 his power. Oswald himself, who had acquired the Scottish 
 language during his exile in the north, acted as Aidan's 
 interpreter when he discoursed to the nobles of his court, 
 and the prestige of being the king's messenger contributed 
 to secure a ready reception for his preaching as he wan- 
 dered from hamlet to hamlet. The moderation, charity, 
 and unselfish devotion of the bishop himself, with which he 
 inspired the numerous emissaries of the faith that flocked 
 to Lindisfarne from lona, tended powerfully in the same 
 direction. He traversed the country on foot, unless when 
 some urgent call made it necessary to travel on horseback, 
 stopping at each settlement to unfold to his hearers the Chris- 
 tian view of the All-Father, of whom the pagan mythology 
 had some conception, or lingering by the way to exhort the 
 infidel to faith, the believer to good works. The charity 
 and self-sacrifice, illustrating the principles of love and 
 duty, which formed the soul of this Celtic Christianity, 
 appealed to the heart with a force which the speculative 
 mysteries of the faith might fail to exert on the mind. 
 The crowds who were attracted to the churches established 
 by him and his fellow-missionaries, yielded a ready ear to 
 words that exemplified a life as well as embodied a creed. 
 The diligence in devotion or useful labour, which Aidan 
 exacted from the inmates of the monastery of Lindisfarne, 
 was not remitted during these journeys. The fatigues of 
 
PRINCIPLE OF BENEVOLENCE. l8l 
 
 the way were forgotten in meditating on the Scriptures, or 
 learning the Psahns by heart. Even at the royal table he 
 did not allow the pleasures of the feast to interfere with 
 the intense bent of his nature, but, having partaken of a 
 slight repast, retired to read or write. Content with the 
 produce of the fields around the island monastery, tilled by 
 the monks for the common sustenance, he used the lavish 
 gifts of the king and the wealthier of his converts, like 
 Gregory the Great, to supply the wants of the poor or to 
 ransom the slave. Many of the latter, after receiving a 
 course of instruction at Lindisfarne, became priests. Others 
 were settled on the Church lands, being allowed to labour 
 half the working week, and to rest on Sunday, thus 
 exchanging a harsh and degrading slavery for the com- 
 parative ease and freedom of an honourable serfdom.* In 
 the humane treatment of the victims of poverty or selfish- 
 ness lies one of the most beneficent effects of the new reli- 
 gion. The ancient Saxon institutions made no provision 
 for the poor ; their rude statute-book contained no humane 
 law which expressed the obligation of the State to care for 
 those, whom the ills or accidents of life had deprived of 
 the means of sustenance; the unfortunate freeman had 
 only the alternative of starvation, or serfdom under a 
 wealthy lord ; poverty brought with it the loss of freedom. 
 Nor did it recognise any right on the part of the slave. 
 The actions of Aidan exemplified the principle of benevo- 
 lence distinctive of the new religion, but unknown to tribes 
 among whom the conquered possessed no rights, and only 
 the free landholder was a man. Oswald proved himself an 
 apt pupil of such teaching. Like Alfred at a later time, 
 his highest aim was his people's good. He strove to spread 
 the Christian religion in his kingdom, not as a means of 
 political capital, as in the case of Conwalch of Wessex, but 
 because he .saw in it a potent agent of his people's en- 
 lightenment and happiness. Though the Venerable Baida 
 shows a tendency to exalt his Christian heroes at the 
 expense of depreciating their pagan rivals, the moral 
 beauty of Oswald's character is evidently reproduced by a 
 truthful, if warmly appreciative, pen. The most powerful 
 
 * Seebohm, " English Village Communities," p. 328. 
 
1 82 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 monarch of his time, and embracing within the sphere of 
 his influence the greater portion of the island,* it was his 
 glory to adorn his commanding position more by the 
 virtues of humility and benevolence than by the pomp of 
 an earthly crown. Mingling in free intercourse with his 
 subjects, he was ever accessible to the poor and the stranger, 
 and his hand ever ready to relieve their wants. Sitting 
 one Easter Day at dinner along with Aidan, the servant 
 whose office it was to attend to the relief of the distressed, 
 announced that a large crowd of needy persons had assem- 
 bled without, and begged the king's bounty. He imme- 
 diately ordered the contents of the table to be distributed, 
 and a large silver dish to be cut up and divided among 
 them. At which the bishop, moved by this touching 
 example of generosity, seized his right hand, and exclaimed, 
 " May this hand never perish." Legend has preserved, 
 among other miracles attributed to his virtues after death, 
 the story of its being found entire and uncorrupted among his 
 mutilated remains on the battlefield on which he was slain, 
 and preserved in the church of St Peter at Bamborough. 
 
 By their victory at Maserfield,-f- where Oswald fell in 
 642, the prosperity of Northumbria was interrupted anew 
 by the ravages of the Mercians. Again and again during 
 the long reign of his brother Oswy the army of Penda broke 
 into the country, pillaging, slaying, and burning, wreaking 
 vengeance, in the destruction of the churches, on the 
 apostasy of the inhabitants. During one of these periodic 
 irruptions, the pagan host, having wasted the countr)- far 
 and near, laid siege to Bamborough, the capital, which, 
 being built on the rocky promontory that still retains its 
 name, and protected by strong walls, defied their protracted 
 efforts to take it. At length Penda tried the plan of 
 reducing it by fire. Collecting a mass of beams, wattles, 
 and thatch from the plundered villages in the neighbour- 
 hood, he made a huge fire around the walls, and the flames, 
 being carried by the wind towards the town, threatened a 
 speedy accomplishment of his purpose. Seeing the smoke 
 
 * Ba.'(la says he brought under his dominion a\\ the nations and pro- 
 vinces of the liritons — I'icts, Scots, anil English (iii. 6). 
 
 + Either Owcstry in Shropshire, or Winwich in Lancashire. 
 
KING AND BISHOP. 1 83 
 
 enveloping the city from his cell on the islet of Fame, 
 whither he frequently retired for solitary prayer, Aldan fell 
 on his knees, and, with upraised hands, exclaimed, " Behold, 
 Lord, how great mischief Penda does." A sudden change 
 of wind driving the fire back on the foe, and causing them 
 to abandon their attempt, was regarded as an answer to his 
 prayer. This incident illustrates the savage and disturbed 
 character of the time in which the labours of the monk- 
 bishop were carried on, during the latter half of his 
 episcopate, and such scenes of plunder and devastation 
 must have checked the extension and consolidation of the 
 new religion. The divided political state of the kingdom 
 doubtless formed an additional hindrance. For a number 
 of years Oswy shared the government with Oswin, the 
 nephew of ^dwin. The friction between them ended in 
 the treacherous murder of the latter. Like Oswald in his 
 tragic fate and elevated character, his tall figure and 
 generous mind were long held in affectionate remembrance 
 in the north. The reverence and docility with which he 
 received the instruction, or the reproof of Aidan found 
 expression in a touching incident shortly before his death. 
 He had presented a superb, richly caparisoned horse to the 
 bishop, to be used by him in his missionary journeys. 
 Meeting a poor man shortly afterwards, Aidan gave him 
 the valuable gift, " for he was very compassionate, a great 
 friend to the poor, and, as it were, the father of the wretched." 
 When Oswin was informed of this generous deed, he 
 upbraided the bishop for his thoughtless extravagance and 
 apparent inappreciation of his kindness, remarking "that 
 there were other horses in his stall good enough for the 
 purpose." "What is it you say, O king?" asked Aidan, "is 
 that foal of a mare more dear to you than the Son of God?" 
 He then took his seat at the royal table, but the king, 
 vexed at the fate of the animal, remained some time at the 
 fire with his attendants. Then suddenly ungirding his 
 sword, and falling at Aidan's feet, he besought his forgive- 
 ness. " From this time forward," he exclaimed, " I will 
 never speak more of this, nor will I judge of what or how 
 much you shall give to the Son of God." Aidan begged 
 him to be seated, but whilst they feasted a deep sadness 
 
1 84 CULTURE IX EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 overcast the face of the saint. " I know," said he to one of 
 the monks who asked the cause of his melancholy, " that 
 the king will not live long, for I never before saw so humble 
 a prince ; whence I conclude that he will soon be snatched 
 out of this life, because this nation is not worthy such a 
 ruler." Not long afterwards this foreboding received its 
 tragic fulfilment, and twelve days later (651) Aidan himself 
 passed quietly away, while leaning his weak frame against 
 a post that supported the wall of a church, built for him by 
 Oswald near the royal residence, and was buried in the little 
 churchyard in Lindisfarne.* 
 
 The credulous veneration of his age found vent in the 
 miracles which it ascribed to his merits, and which Ba^da 
 reverently records. His impartial mind has also done 
 justice to his virtues, notwithstanding the prejudices which 
 he frequently betrays against the uncanonical practices of 
 these Scottish missionaries. " I have written this much," 
 he concludes, " concerning the person and works of the 
 aforesaid Aidan, in no way commending or approving what 
 he imperfectly understood in relation to the observation of 
 Easter, nay, very much detesting the same, as I have most 
 manifestly proved in the book I have written, ' De 
 Temporibus'; but like an impartial historian, relating what 
 was done by him or with him, commending such things as 
 are praiseworthy in his actions, and preserving the memory 
 thereof for the benefit of my readers, viz., his love of peace 
 and charity, his continence and humility, his superiority to 
 anger and avarice, his detestation of pride and vain-glory, 
 his industry in keeping and teaching the heavenl)- com- 
 mandments, his diligence in reading and watching, his 
 authority becoming a priest in reproving the haught)- and 
 powerful, and, at the same time, his tenderness in comforting 
 the afflicted and relieving or defending the poor."-f- 
 
 Under his successors, Finan and Colman, Christianit}- 
 took an even firmer hold of the Northumbrians. Its pro- 
 gress, and the renewed prosperity of the kingdom, were 
 greatly advanced by the overthrow of Penda. Roused by 
 
 • His remains were afterwards laid besiile the altar of tlie larger cliurch 
 that replaced the simple wooilen oratory, 
 t " Hist. Keel.," iii., c. 17. 
 
THE DEATH-BLOW OF PAGANISM. IcS5 
 
 the continual ravages of the Mercian king, which promised, 
 if unchecked, to reduce his kingdom to a waste, Oswy, after 
 a vain attempt to propitiate his implacable enmity, resolved 
 to stake his kingdom on the issue of a battle. On the 
 banks of the Winwaed* his small army engaged with the 
 thirt\- divisions of Penda and his British and East Anglian 
 alies, killing the king and nearly all his thirty commanders. 
 Those of the fugitives who escaped the sword perished in 
 the swollen current of the stream. The cross had triumphed 
 over the sacred banners of Woden. The pertinacity with 
 which the pagan champion maintained the struggle against 
 the supremacy and the Christianity of Northumbria, show 
 him to have been a leader of great character and resource ; 
 and the excesses which marked these wars, though pro- 
 babl}- intensified by religious bitterness, were only the usual 
 accompaniments of the incessant strife that convulsed these 
 pett}' Saxon states. Such friction and disunion saved the 
 Britons of Wales and Strathclyde from complete conquest, 
 while contributing a Rembrandtian colouring to the picture 
 of the culture of this period. Baeda, we presume, would 
 incline to paint such a character in dark hues. The pagan 
 ferocity of a Penda — type of the paganSaxon chief — could 
 hardly have been guilty of a more dastardly deed than the 
 murder of Oswin by the Christian Oswy. One good trait 
 he has recorded which reveals the manly honesty of the 
 rough old pagan. " He hated and despised those whom he 
 perceived not to perform the works of the faith which they 
 had received, saying they were contemptible and wretched 
 who did not obey the God in whom they believed." 
 Towards the end of his reign his hostility towards Chris- 
 tianity seems to have abated. He showed himself tolerant 
 towards the Church of the South Mercians, whose chief, 
 Peada, his son, had listened to the preaching of Finan when 
 on a visit to the Northumbrian court to ask the daughter 
 of Oswy in marriage, and had been baptized with his 
 followers at one of the royal seats near the Roman Wall. 
 Lindisfarne supplied a missionary bishop in the person of 
 
 * Skene thinks that the liattle of Winwaed, in the region of Loidas, was 
 fought not in the district of Leeds, but of Lothian, also known by the name of 
 Loidis. 
 
I 86 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 Diuma, and his four successors were cither Celtic monks or 
 Saxons, who had been educated at Lindisfarne.* 
 
 While the arms and influence of Oswy conduced to 
 the extension of the power of the cross beyond the con- 
 fines of Northumbria, its steady expansion between the 
 Forth and the Humber is attested by the number of mon- 
 astic establishments, that impressed the culture of Lindis- 
 farne on the life of the people. In acknowledgment of the 
 victory that had shattered the power of Penda, the king 
 dedicated twelve farms, each capable of sustaining ten 
 families, for the support of a like number of monasteries. 
 Of these one-half was in Dcira, the other in Bernicia. 
 His infant daughter, Elfleda, was consecrated to the reli- 
 gious life in the monastery of Hartlepool,-|- of which the 
 celebrated Hilda was abbess. Two years later Hilda 
 founded another at Streaneshalch, the modern Whitby, 
 where her ro}'al pupil afterwards became her successor, and 
 where the remains of Oswy and his queen found a resting- 
 place. Another was established at Lastingham b\- Bishop 
 Cedd, who had been educated at Lindisfarne, and who 
 during one of his visits to Northumbria from his diocese 
 among the East Saxons, received a piece of land from 
 Ethelwald for the erection of a cell. On the banks of the 
 Tweed, at Old Melrose, a few miles from the site, which the 
 beautiful ruins of the Cistercian abbey have rendered so 
 famous, rose the cells of Eata and his companions, which 
 were not merely the nurse of the life of devotion, but a 
 centre for the evangelisation of the inhabitants of the 
 Lammermoor and Cheviot uplands, and a half-way house 
 between lona and Lindisfarne. At Coludi, the modern 
 Coldingham, on a high cliff in face of the stern North Sea, 
 Ebba, the sister of Oswy, gathered a large number of 
 monks and nuns in separate establishments, on the model 
 of the great institution of Whitb)'. Side by side with this 
 development of the monastic life, fostering among the 
 people a spirit of industry, and finding its extreme outcome 
 in the solitary, contemplative life of the anchorite or hermit, 
 there sprang up a thirst for knowledge which led many of 
 
 * Bxda, " Hist. Eccl.," iii., c. 21 and 24. 
 
 t Herutcn (island of the stag), founded in 649. 
 
THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE. 1 8/ 
 
 all classes — noble and peasant alike — to repair to the cele- 
 brated schools of Ireland, where they were hospitably 
 received, and supplied with books and instruction gratis. 
 Some, like Ecgbert, assumed the monastic habit, and earned 
 for themselves the reputation of labouring in exile for the 
 sake of Christ. Others went from one school to another, 
 as the fame of a celebrated teacher attracted them, and, 
 like Ethelwin, returned to their native land to fill the epis- 
 copal office, or to spread the light of their knowledge from 
 the monasteries which they founded. The religious fervour 
 of the time brought Northumbria. on the other hand, into 
 close relations with the Churches of Gaul and Italy, as had 
 already been the case in Kent, whence large numbers of 
 devotees, among them the daughters of King Earconbert, 
 sought retirement from the world in the religious establish- 
 ments of Brie, Chilles, and Andelys. The enthusiasm which 
 despised riches and honours, and the desire to look upon the 
 scenes hallowed by the presence of the chief apostles, and to 
 learn the rules of the faith at the headquarters of Western 
 Christendom, led several to visit Rome, bringing anew the 
 culture of the Eternal City into direct contact with the far 
 north. Among these were Wilfrid, a pupil at Lindisfarne, 
 and Benedict, a wealthy young noble, both destined to be- 
 come famous in Northumbria, the former a.s the champion 
 of Roman ecclesiastical usages, the latter as the Nestor of art 
 and learning in the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow. 
 The peaceful religious and intellectual progress, which 
 the victory of Oswy had secured to the kingdom, was 
 disturbed by strife of another kind. Cut off by Saxon 
 invasion from the close intercourse with the Western 
 Church, which it had cultivated during the third and fourth 
 centuries, the native British and Irish Churches had been 
 little influenced by the enactments of the Roman See. 
 The Roman missionaries to the Anglo-Saxons at the end 
 of the sixth century found the customs of an earlier time 
 prevailing among the British hierarchy, especially in regard 
 to the tonsure and the celebration of Easter.* Instead of 
 
 * After mentioning their erroneous celebration of Easter, Breda adds : 
 "Besides they did several other things which were contrary to the unity of 
 the Church." 
 
1 88 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 the coronal tonsure, which was practised in the Roman and 
 GaUican Churches, the British and Irish ecclesiastics shaved 
 the forepart of the head ; whilst they followed the older 
 cycle of eighty-four years in calculating the time of Easter, 
 instead of that of nineteen years adopted by Pope Hilarius 
 in 525. Augustine, the leader of the missionary band sent 
 by Pope Gregory to Kent, had striven to persuade them to 
 change their views, but in vain. The efforts of Laurcntius, 
 his successor at Canterbury, to bring about a union of 
 fellowship and missionary effort on the basis of Roman 
 usage, were equally unsuccessful ; and so tenacious were the 
 Scots and Britons in clinging to their ancient customs, 
 that, as he relates in a letter to the bishops and abbots 
 throughout Scotia, one of their number had refused to 
 eat at the same table, or in the same house with him. 
 Columbanus and his fellow monks carried the quarrel 
 over to the Continent, and did not hesitate to maintain 
 the claims of the practices, hallowed by the memory 
 of Patrick and Columba, against the learning of Gaul 
 and Italy. The bishops of the south of Ireland had 
 already yielded, however, to the authority and the 
 arguments of Pope Honorius and his successor (634), as 
 we learn from a letter of Cummian, abbot of the monas- 
 tery of Durrow, to Seghine, the fourth successor of Columba 
 at lona. To us the controversial value of the epistle has 
 little interest, but the glimpse it affords of the active 
 intercourse between Rome and the monasteries of remote 
 Scotia, and the extensive erudition in patristic lore, as well 
 as mastery of the sacred tongues, are important from the 
 point of view of culture. That lona, too, bulked by this 
 time in the distant horizon of Rome is apparent from the 
 epistle on this subject, directed a few years later by the 
 Apostolic See to Seghine, among other doctors of the 
 Scottish Church. It failed to convince, however, and the 
 Church of North Ireland and of lona and its dependent 
 monasteries were still staunch adherents of their ancient 
 usages when tlic cjuarrcl broke out with renewed violence 
 in Northumbria. Its commencement was due parti)' to the 
 efforts of those who had studied in the schools of France 
 and Itai)' to persuade the Scottish monks of Lindisfarne to 
 
CONTROVERSY AND DISUNION. 189 
 
 conform, partly to difference of opinion on the subject 
 between Oswy and his queen, Eanfleda, brou<^ht up in 
 Kent in the Romish system. '• It happened," says Baeda, 
 who loses no opportunity of exaggerating the importance 
 of the matter in dispute, " that Easter was twice kept in 
 one year, and that when the king, having ended the time of 
 fasting, kept his Easter, the queen and her followers were 
 still fasting and celebrating Palm Sunday. Doubtless, too, 
 the independent and irascible Celt chafed against the 
 authoritative and aggressive attitude represented by the 
 impetuous Wilfrid, who, on his return from Rome and 
 Lyons, where he had spent several years, zealously propa- 
 gated the new views from his monastery of Ripon, which 
 his devoted patron, Alchfrith, Oswy's son, and governor of 
 Deira, had taken from the community of Celtic monks on 
 whom he had originally bestowed it. Though this quarrel 
 is trivial in itself, it is of great importance in the history of 
 the intellectual life of the period, as it proved the subject 
 of dialectic gymnastics in Northern Britain, with more or 
 less prominence, for nearly two centuries — from the Con- 
 ference at Augustine's Ac, in the beginning of the seventh, 
 to the latest quiverings of the strife at lona and in Wales 
 in the latter half of the eighth. It gives colour to the 
 culture of the time. It was as absorbing a theme to the 
 politicians and ecclesiastics of those days as the Disruption 
 controversy or the Reform movement in the nineteenth 
 century. It called into activity the talents, the passions, 
 the prejudices, the antagonisms of several generations. 
 It gave an impulse to historical study, although the 
 disputants were uncritical, and biassed in their use of 
 historical data. 
 
 Under Colman the strife and perplexity became so 
 intense that Oswy resolved to convene a synod at Streanes- 
 halch (Whitby) for the purpose of deciding the point at 
 issue. We have here the first of those ecclesiastical assem- 
 blies, which have wielded such an influence on the legisla- 
 tion and the culture of our land. The principal debaters 
 on the side of Eanfleda and Alchfrith were Romanus, the 
 queen's chaplain; Agilbert,bishopofthe West Saxons; James, 
 who had maintained the Roman usage and the Christian 
 
190 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 faith in the church of York since the flight of Paulinus, after 
 the death of /Edwin ; and, above all, Wilfrid, who had begun 
 to take that leading part in the Church of the North, which 
 he strove to sustain throughout the strange vicissitudes of a 
 stormy career. On the side of Colman were, besides the 
 king himself, who naturally favoured the practice he had 
 learned to love when an exile at lona, Bishop Cedd and 
 the Abbess Hilda. Oswy presided over the discussion, and 
 the liberality of his mind is seen in the impartiality with 
 which he exhorted the disputants to aim only at truth and 
 unity. It behoved those who served one God, he remarked, 
 to observe the same rule of life, and as they all expected 
 the same kingdom in heaven, so they ought not to differ in 
 the celebration of the divine mysteries, but rather to inquire 
 which was the true tradition, that the same might be fol- 
 lowed by all.* Colman defended the practice of the Scots 
 on the ground that it was sanctioned by his forefathers — 
 men celebrated for their piety and zeal — and was sup- 
 ported by the authority of St John and Anatolius. But he 
 was unable to maintain his position before the greater eru- 
 dition and argumentative skill of Wilfrid. Some of his 
 assertions, however, might easily have been refuted b}- an 
 adversary, cooler and better acquainted with history than 
 Colman seems to have been. Wilfrid quotes Scripture, for 
 example, in which there is no mention whatever of a paschal 
 cycle, and the decretals of the Church, of which only that of 
 Nice contains any reference to the subject, enjoining that 
 Easter should be celebrated on a Sunday — a practice which 
 the Celtic Church did not contradict. The crucial point 
 of the debate was the appeal b}- the champion of Rome to 
 the authority of the successors of St Peter against that of 
 Columba. " As for your Columba," exclaimed Wilfrid, 
 almost contemptuously, " however pious he may have been, 
 however great his merits, can his authority be compared to 
 that of St Peter, to whom Christ said, 'Thou art Peter, and 
 on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto thee the 
 keys of the kingdom of heaven'?" "Is it true, Colman, 
 that these words were spoken to Peter ?" inquired Osw}-. 
 • lixda, " Hist. Keel.," iii.,c. 25. 
 
B^EDA AND THE SCOTTISH MONKS. IQI 
 
 " It is true, O king," replied the bishop. " Can you show 
 any such power given to your Columba ? " " None," was 
 the reply. " Do you both agree that these words were 
 principally directed to Peter, and that the keys of heaven 
 were committed to him by our Lord ? " " We do." " And I 
 also declare unto you," concluded the king, " that he is the 
 doorkeeper whom I will not contradict, but will, as far as 
 in me lies, obey his decrees, lest when I come to the gates 
 of the kingdom of heaven there should be none to open 
 them, he being my adversary who is proved to possess the 
 keys." The decision of Oswy left no choice between sub- 
 mission and departure. Colman chose the latter, and, 
 along with those who still clung to their convictions, 
 returned to lona. Tuda, a native of the south of Ireland, 
 was appointed bishop in his place; Eata, abbot of Melrose, 
 being placed, at the request of Colman, over the abbey of 
 Lindisfarne. Otherwise, there was not much difference 
 between the creed of lona and that of Rome. Whilst 
 Columbanus in Gaul stoutly refused to receive anything not 
 based on " the doctrines of the evangelists and the apostles," 
 the same superstitious realistic element is discernible in 
 both, the same belief in the miraculous, the same notion of 
 saintly intercession, the same crude anthropomorphism, the 
 same tendency towards the external. And if we fail to 
 discover in the ecclesiastical life of the Scots the pomp of 
 imperial Rome, we look in vain for the fastidious spiritualism 
 of modern Puritanism. 
 
 The tribute which Bsda pays to the worth of these 
 sturdy adherents of custom is all the more valuable, inas- 
 much as it comes from one whose reverence for the Roman 
 Church could only see, in the opposition of a Colman to its 
 authority, the obstinacy of a prejudiced mind. Their influ- 
 ence was not used for selfish ends. In self-forgetfulness 
 and poverty they wandered from village to village, preach- 
 ing, visiting the sick, relieving the wants of the poor, and 
 extorting, by their industry, from the land, on which they 
 founded their monasteries and churches, a frugal subsistence 
 for themselves. Their only wealth consisted in a few cattle 
 and the produce of the fields. The days of episcopal 
 retinues and costly entertainments were not yet, "there 
 
192 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND, 
 
 being no need to entertain the great men of the world, for 
 such never resorted to the church (at Lindisfarne), except 
 to pray and to hear the Word of God. But if they happened 
 to take a repast there, they were satisfied with the plain and 
 daily food of the brethren." So great was their indifference 
 to things material, so intense their devotion to their noble 
 calling, that none of them received lands and possessions 
 for building monasteries, unless they were compelled to do 
 so by the temporal authorities. Their simplicity left its 
 traces on their departure from Lindisfarne in the few rude 
 huts surrounding the church, which, according to the Scot- 
 tish custom, was built of wood and roofed with reeds. 
 " For this reason," saj'S Baeda, who seems to hold up this 
 picture of simplicity and devotion as a reproach to the cor- 
 ruption of his own times, half a century later, " the religious 
 habit was held at that time in great veneration, so that wher- 
 ever a priest or monk happened to come, he was jo\-fully 
 received by all persons as God's servant. . . . Great 
 attention was paid to their exhortations, and on Sunday 
 the people flocked eagerly to the churches or the monas- 
 teries, not to feed their bodies, but to hear the word of God ; 
 and if any priest happened to enter a village, the inhabitants 
 eagerly assembled to hear from him the word of life." 
 
 The toleration which had permitted diversity of opinion 
 and practice in the Northumbrian Church during the 
 administration of these devoted Scottish missionaries, was, 
 we may infer from the pages of Baida, incompatible with 
 the new spirit of the age. Although the Roman Church 
 had sanctioned a wise policy of forbearance in dealing with 
 the Anglo-Saxon paganism, it did so only from a considera- 
 tion of its utilit}', and not because it recognised the rights 
 of private judgment. We look in vain in the dominant 
 tendency of the time — represented b}' the dogmatism of 
 Wilfrid * — for the freedom of thought which underlies our 
 modern culture, and which has struggled for over a thousand 
 years against the ecclesiastical and intellectual tendency 
 
 • The intrepid champion of Rome was destined, however, to call forth a 
 reaction against liimsclf, if not against his tendency, by his dogmatic assertivc- 
 ness, and the political liberty of the .Vnglo-Saxons maintained itself in the 
 persons of Oswy and Ecgberl against his attempts to dictate in the quarrels of a 
 subsequent time. 
 
DOGMA AND UNITY. 1 93 
 
 which triumphed at Streaneshalch. The controversy which 
 resulted in the establishment of the influence of Rome on 
 the people of Northumbria in place of that of lona, is, I 
 repeat, of small importance in itself The trivial points of 
 difference did not concern the practical effect of Christianity 
 on the life of the people, which, whether at lona or at 
 Rome, depends on the spiritual force influencing the will 
 and the heart. Unfortunately, the trivial character of the 
 subjects discussed is only too closely in keeping with those 
 which have absorbed the attention of council and conclave, 
 of presbytery and assembly, in the mistaken striving to exalt 
 the mysteries and forms of Christianity at the expense of ex- 
 citing disunion and repressing its spirit. From a philosophic 
 point of view, it is not easy to discover in what respects 
 the culture which Columba introduced among the Picts, and 
 Aidan among the Northumbrians, could have had a more 
 beneficial effect, had they happened to be in exact unison 
 with the rest of Christendom on the matters of the tonsure 
 and the Easter celebration. But trivial and unessential as 
 the points of difference were, the decision of the council in 
 favour of unity of practice undoubtedly had an important 
 lesson to teach both Celt and Anglo-Saxon. Underlying 
 the puerile discussions which terminated in favour of Rome, 
 we see the idea of a united Church taking the place of the 
 imperial unity, — an idea which was to find a practical 
 expression in the administration of Theodore, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, who was sent five years later, by Pope 
 Vitalian, to organise the English Church. The idea of a 
 Church, one in government, practice, and doctrine, thus 
 mooted at Whitby and realised by Theodore, was fitted to 
 have an important effect in fusing the petty kingdoms of 
 Saxon Britain, and, at a later time, the warring tribes of 
 Alba, into organic nations. Though it must not be for- 
 gotten that the most potent agent in attaining this result 
 was after all the sword of the strongest,* the example of a 
 united Church, with a central jurisdiction and subordinate 
 divisions, was an eloquent guide-post, pointing to national 
 unity. Dissension in the Church in the then divided con- 
 
 * Green, in his " History of the English People," overlooks this aspect of 
 the question. 
 
 N 
 
194 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 dition of Britain could only have tended to perpetuate 
 disunion in the state, and I readily recognise the service 
 rendered b)- Roman intolerance to English nationality. 
 And if we regard the Church, not as a unity in diversity, 
 but as, according to the Roman view, a universal organisation, 
 this trivial controversy between Celt and Saxon assumes an 
 importance which, regarded from a more spiritual point of 
 view, it does not possess. In such an organisation a small 
 detail has its place alongside a weighty fact, and, apart 
 from the despotic claims of an ecclesiastical ruler, striving 
 to wield divine jurisdiction over the minds of men, a 
 tolerant, flexible brotherhood, one in spirit and aim, would 
 have embodied the Christian ideal betterthan the ridiculously 
 schismatic, narrow individualism of our own land at the 
 present time. There is a good deal to be said for M. de 
 Guizot's standpoint. " Fait glorieux et puissant, qui a rendu 
 du V'" au XI IP' siecle d'immenses services a I'humanite. 
 L'unite de I'Eglise a seule maintenu quelque lien entre des 
 pays et des peuples que tout d'ailleurs tendait a separer, et 
 sous son influence, quelques notions generales, quelques 
 sentiments d'une vaste sympathie ont continuer de se 
 developper et du sein de la plus epouvantable confusion 
 politique, que le monde ait jamais connu, s'est elevee I'idee 
 la plus etendue et la plus pure, peut-etre, qui ait jamais 
 rallie les hommes, I'idee de la societe spirituelle, car c'est la 
 le nom philosophique de TEglise, le type quelle a voulu 
 realiser." * 
 
 The decision in favour of Rome brought the north into 
 close touch with the influences of a culture, which could not 
 have emanated from lona or Ireland, however much credit 
 we may reasonably give them for knowledge and piety. 
 The architecture, art, and refinement of Ital)', which came 
 in the track of the Roman prelate, could not have come in 
 the train of the Irish monk. Theodore and his companion 
 Hadrian, both masters of ancient learning, profane and 
 sacred, founded schools in which a larger and more refining 
 knowledge was imparted to the crowds of eager students 
 that resorted to them, than could be obtained in the humble 
 cells of the Scottish monks. Benedict Hiscop collected a 
 * " Hisloire de li Civilisalicn en France," i., p. 339. 
 
RENAISSANCE OF ROMAN CULTURE. 1 95 
 
 noble library in his monastery at Wearmouth, and attracted 
 the most celebrated teachers within his reach to instruct the 
 youth of Northumbria. The wisdom and science of the 
 time suddenly illuminated Northumbria with an even more 
 radiant light than had shone upon it from lona, and the 
 rude Saxon mind now eagerly responded to the touch of 
 that Rome, whose power and culture had formerly fared so 
 badly at his hands. In the erudition of a Baeda, in the 
 poetry of a Caedmon, in the fluent diction of an Eddius, 
 we see a reflex of the renaissance of intellectual life, which 
 sprang from the direct relation to Rome. " For as much as 
 both of them (Theodore and Hadrian) were well read, both 
 in sacred and secular learning, they gathered a crowd of 
 disciples, and there daily flowed from them rivers of know- 
 ledge to water the hearts of their hearers. Besides the 
 books of Holy Writ, they also taught the arts of ecclesiastical 
 poetry, astronomy, and arithmetic. A testimony of which 
 is, that there are still living at this day some of their scholars 
 who are as well versed in the Greek and Latin tongues as in 
 their own. Nor were there ever happier days since the 
 English came into Britain, for their kings, being brave and 
 good Christians, were a terror to all barbarous nations; 
 and the minds of all men were bent upon the joys of the 
 heavenly kingdom of which they had heard, and all who 
 desired to be instructed in sacred reading had masters at 
 hand to teach them." * 
 
 About the same time that this revival of Roman culture 
 was thus conquering the northern portion of the old Roman 
 province, we light upon the trace, north of the Forth, of a 
 more pliable spirit towards the claims and usages of Rome 
 — a spirit fitted also to respond to the culture for which 
 they paved the way in Northumbria. It appears in the 
 amiable, erudite, and humanitarian Adamnan, the biogra- 
 pher of Columba, and abbot of lona from 679 to 704. 
 Next to that of its founder, Adamnan's is the most con- 
 siderable name connected with the great island monastery. 
 His reputation was as great and as influential in North- 
 umbria as in Ireland, in whose affairs he seems to have 
 taken an active and enlightened part, as the law (Lex 
 * Bxda, " Hist. Eccl.," iv., c. 2. 
 
196 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 Adamnani), which exempted women from the barbarous 
 custom of taking part in warlike expeditions (hostings), 
 bears evidence. He was a welcome guest at the court, and 
 in the monasteries of Northumbria. B;L'da has paid a 
 generous tribute to his memory, as an acceptable writer and 
 as a reformer in the service of the new Northumbrian 
 culture. The polished Aldfrid, who succeeded to the throne 
 after the death of his brother Ecgfrid, at the battle of 
 Nechtansmere against the Picts (685), and who had learned 
 to prize the friendship of Adamnan when living in exile at 
 lona and in Ireland, maintained the closest intercourse 
 with the scholarly abbot. One of his visits was dictated 
 by the humane purpose of obtaining the release of a 
 number of Irish captives, who had been carried off from 
 their native land during the hostile expedition sent by 
 Ecgfrid against Ireland. We are already acquainted with 
 one of the products of his literary activity, his biography 
 of Columba, which remains, next to B;eda, the most 
 valuable source of information on the history of the north 
 during an epoch of singular interest and importance. 
 Another, his tract on " The Holy Places " (" Dc Locis 
 Sanctis"), is a short but lucid account of what he had learned 
 from Bishop Arculfus, who was shipwrecked on the west 
 coast on his return from Gaul, during the winter months 
 that he was compelled to spend in the monastery. It 
 includes notices of Tyre, Alexandria, Constantinople, and 
 Sicily, and is a monument of the curious interest which was 
 beginning to pulsate in the minds of men, awakening from 
 the onesidcdness of their too isolated situation. It was 
 highly prized by Ba:da, into whose hands it came from the 
 Northumbrian court, Adamnan having presented his work 
 to King Aldfrid. It pos.sesses the additional interest of 
 having given rise, at a much later time, to a breezy literary 
 controversy between the Protestant divine Casaubon and 
 the Jesuit scholar Gretzer. The former had animadverted 
 on the credulity of Baronius in accepting the testimony of 
 Arculfus as authentic, when the latter vindicated both by 
 publishing the text of Adamnan at Ingolstadt in 1619. 
 Adamnan had a turn for poetry of the mcdi;cval realistic 
 cast as well as for history, if the vi.sion attributed to him of 
 
ADAM NAN ITS ADVOCATE AT ION A. 1 97 
 
 what he saw when his soul was taken to paradise and hell 
 be a production of his. The weird tale, reminding of the 
 dream of the Celtic monk Fursa preserved by Baeda, may- 
 be regarded as one of the forerunners of the Divina 
 Comedia, or the passion-plays of an analogous though later 
 culture. Though Adamnan succeeded in bringing about 
 conformity to Rome in the north of Ireland and in 
 Strathclyde,* he encountered strong opposition from a con- 
 servative party at lona, which appears to have maintained 
 its ground far on into the eighth century, in spite of the 
 success of the Saxon monk Ecgbert, educated in Ireland, 
 in bringing over the majority. The revolution in the 
 Church of the Picts was accomplished in a much more im- 
 perative and thorough fashion by King Nechtan, in whose 
 action in sending messengers to Ceolfrid, the successor of 
 Abbot Benedict at Wearmouth, for instruction in the 
 Roman usages, we may see the growing influence of the 
 Saxon Church in the north, where a bishop had been 
 settled at Abercorn on the south shore of the Forth, pre- 
 vious to the defeat of Ecgfrid by the Picts,f and perhaps a 
 reaction on the part of the Picts against the ecclesiastical 
 supremacy of the Scots, with whom there henceforth arose 
 a good deal of political friction.^ Nechtan demanded con- 
 formity on the part of the Columban monks within his 
 territories, with the alternative of expulsion across Drum- 
 alban, and, on their refusal, put in force the threat with an 
 intolerance which Oswy had not manifested in North- 
 umbria. But he did not confine his reforming labours to 
 mere points of ecclesiastical order. He sent for architects 
 as well as preachers, and had a church built, probably at 
 Abernethy, in the Roman style, which had already sup- 
 planted the Celtic wooden oratory in Northumbria. 
 Ecclesiastical Rome had at length accomplished what 
 imperial Rome and her Saxon enemies had been unable 
 to do — she had conquered the Grampians. Additional 
 
 * Skene infers this of the Britons of Strathclyde, from an expression of 
 Bxda to the effect that Adamnan converted a number of " the Britons " to the 
 Roman usages. 
 
 t After the battle of Nechtansmere, Trumuin, the bishop, and his clergy, 
 had fled southwards, however. 
 
 X As the hostilities noted in the chronicles show. 
 
198 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 evidence of this is furnished by the dedication of churches 
 to St Peter, St Andrew, the Trinity, and by a series of 
 legends — especially those of Boniface and Servanus, who 
 were both reputed to come from Rome in the beginning of 
 the eighth century, and had even filled the chair of St Peter 
 — pointing to the active influence of the Northumbrian 
 Church in its efforts to Romanise the Christian communities 
 north of the Forth and the Tay. 
 
SPIRITUAL OFFSPRING OF THE CELT. 199 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MONK OF MELROSE. 
 
 IN the interval between the death of Aldan and the 
 withdrawal of Colman to lona, the evangelisation 
 of the northern part of Northumbria, between the 
 Tweed and the Forth, had been prosecuted by Cuthbert. 
 Bffida is again our trusty guide, and so outstanding a 
 figure was he in the history of this epoch, that he wrote a 
 separate biography of the great missionary ascetic, as well 
 as took ample notice of his life and labours in his " Ecclesi- 
 astical History." The immortal historian grappled with his 
 task in that spirit of discernment and industry, of which he 
 has left a monument in his voluminous works. " What I 
 have written concerning our holy father, Bishop Cuthbert," 
 he remarks in the preface to his history, " either in this 
 volume or in my treatise on his life and actions, I partly 
 took and faithfully copied from what I found written of 
 him by the brethren * of the church of Lindisfarne, but at 
 the same time took care to add such things as I could 
 myself find out by the faithful testimony of such as knew 
 him." The credulity which saturates his pages, while it 
 unfits him for the role of philosopher, adds to the flow and 
 the naive charms of the narrative of the historian. 
 
 Irish tradition claims for Cuthbert a Celtic parentage, 
 and professes to detail the romantic events of his earlier 
 life, bringing him from Ireland to Galloway, thence to lona 
 and Dull in Blair Athole, and finally announces his future 
 activity among the Angles. He was at least the spiritual 
 offspring of the Celtic monastic spirit ; and as the repre- 
 sentative of its simpler, ascetic tendency, in contrast to the 
 more cosmopolitan and hierarchic attitude of a Wilfrid, I 
 
 * "De Vita et Miraculis Sancti Cuthberti, Episcopi Lindesfarnensis," trans- 
 lated by Stevenson. Another life by an anonymous author, a monk of 
 Lindisfarne ("Vita Sancti Cuthberti, auctore anon."), contains little additional. 
 
200 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 take his life and work as furnishing a remarkably vivid 
 picture, an eloquent epitome, of Celtic Christian culture. 
 
 Baida does not tarry to be minute about his parents or 
 the place of his birth,* and introduces him as a child at play 
 in that charming Border district, to which the genius of 
 Scott has lent a classic interest, but which was then a rude, 
 and for the most part pastoral land. It was a land of mist 
 and marsh, of forest and lonely heath, of furze and swamp, 
 — the appropriate haunt of those ill-bearing monsters with 
 which the Saxon mythology peopled such places, — which 
 would play an important 7-6le in the life of the imaginative 
 lad as he followed his father's sheep. Cuthbert, as a boy, 
 was of cheerful temperament, active and full of spirit, fond 
 of play, and excelling all his companions in the bo}'ish 
 games in which he took delight. There is no mention of 
 his having had the benefit of early instruction in the 
 elements of the knowledge of his time, as in the cases of 
 Columba and Kentigern. Probably his only school before 
 entering the monastery of Melrose, after he had resolved to 
 dedicate himself to a monastic life, was the home of his 
 Christian parents, who were undoubtedly people of afflu- 
 ence, where he would learn the facts of Scripture story as 
 they had heard them. His only additional training would 
 be that of his simple circumstances. The self-culture of 
 devotion and meditation came to the frolicsome lad through 
 the agency of a child, so the legend has it, who first 
 directed his attention from play to the idea of a great voca- 
 tion in the future. He was evidently gifted with a quick 
 fancy, which could read its own meaning into things and 
 events, and which henceforth took on a rcliirious colourin£f. 
 " He often saw and conversed with angels, and when 
 hungry was fed with unwonted food direct from God," and 
 this creative power of a simple fancy often relieved the 
 gloom of the trials of after-life. When suffering, shortly 
 afterwards, from a swelling in the knee, and given up as incur- 
 able by the medicine man of the district, he sees in the 
 compassionate stranger — perhaps some skilful monk — who, 
 
 * The writer of Art. " Cuthbert," in " National Dictionary of Biography," 
 places it at Tyningham in East Lothian, but the Tyne, with which his name is 
 associated, is more prol)ably tlic larger river fartlier south. 
 
YOUTHFUL IMPRESSIONS. 201 
 
 in passing, efficaciously prescribed a poultice of whcaten 
 flour sodden with milk, a messenger from heaven. At 
 another time, whilst engaged tending his flock during the 
 summer months among the distant hills through which the 
 Leader flows,* he kept awake in watching and prayer, 
 according to custom, when a shower of meteors, shooting 
 through the calm summer sky, becomes a band of angels 
 bearing upwards a soul of surpassing brightness through 
 the portals of the opened heavens. Awaking his com- 
 panions, he related to them what he had seen, and they 
 unite in praising God. Soon after, the news of Aidan's death 
 explained the wonderful incident to their simple minds. 
 
 This vision strengthened in Cuthbert the resolution 
 to embrace the religious life. He was already distin- 
 guished for the fervour of his piety, which naturally was 
 coloured by the influences of the age. While journey- 
 ing amid the hilly solitudes of the Lammermoors or the 
 Cheviots, he turns aside into a village to rest and procure 
 food for his horse, and finds a ready welcome in the hut 
 of a pious woman, who offers to provide him with a dinner 
 out of her scanty store of provisions. Though exhausted, 
 and repeatedly pressed by his kind hostess, he refused, 
 being unwilling to break his fast, " for it was the sixth day 
 of the week, on which many of the faithful, out of reverence 
 for the Lord's passion, were accustomed to extend their 
 fasting to the ninth hour." After a short rest he resumed 
 his journey, and as evening draws near he is still far from 
 any human habitation, and seeks the shelter of some frail 
 shepherds' huts, deserted by their owners not long before, 
 when they removed their flocks to pasturage less exposed 
 to the storms of winter. Whilst resigning himself to the 
 cheerless situation, with the thought of the merit of pro- 
 longing his fast throughout the night, his horse pulling at 
 the grass, which served for a roof, drew down a piece of 
 bread and meat, wrapped in a white cloth, which he shares 
 with the animal. This he regards as a miraculous reward 
 of his unwavering faith, forgetting that it was only the 
 luncheon which some shepherd had omitted to take with 
 him a day or two before. 
 
 * Anonymous Life. 
 
202 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 This spirit of superstitious simplicity naturally led him 
 to solicit admission into the monastery of Melrose, in the 
 year 651. In the absence of Eata, the abbot, one of the 
 more distinguished of the youths whom Aidan had edu- 
 cated at Lindisfarne, he was received by Boisel, the prior, 
 whose memory has perpetuated itself in Tweeddale in 
 the modern St Boswells, and who subsequently recom- 
 mended him for the tonsure. The instruction given in the 
 monastery seems to have been limited in its range. Melrose 
 embraced a community devoted to missionary enterprise 
 and spiritual devotion, rather than a school for learning 
 and study. Nevertheless every religious community in 
 Northumbria, even at this early period, had a school 
 attached to it in which the youth of the district were 
 instructed. Besides the rules of monkish discipline, in 
 which Boisel enjoyed the reputation of a master, the only 
 study mentioned is that of the Scriptures; but writing at 
 least was also taught, and such history as the traditions of 
 the past, and the lives of the fathers and saints afforded. 
 Cuthbert at once became a sedulous student. The pre- 
 eminence which he had enjoyed among his playmates 
 marked him out in the serious exercises of the cloister from 
 among his fellow-monks. Of robust strength and active 
 disposition, he gave the time which remained over from 
 study and devotion to severe manual labour. 
 
 About the same time that Cuthbert was enrolled among 
 the pupils of Boisel at Melrose, another youth, destined to 
 play an important part in the religious life of Northumbria 
 during half a century, and whose enthusiasm and strength 
 of character likewise distinguished him as a boy from his 
 companions, and earned him the patronage of Queen 
 Eanflcda, entered the school of Lindisfarne. The life of 
 Wilfrid was a very eventful one. Unlike that of the gentle 
 missionary ascetic, to whose retiring disposition the quiet 
 of the cloister and the seclusion of the remote hamlets of 
 Upper Tweeddale and Northumberland were more con- 
 genial than the excitement of tra\cl and the strife of con- 
 troversy, the biography of this restless, zealous ecclesiastic 
 possesses all the elements of a powerful drama. The 
 careers of both monkish students afford the same striking 
 
CUTHBERT AND WILFRID. 203 
 
 illustration of concentration of soul in the pursuit of its 
 purpose. But here the similarity ends. In Wilfrid, this 
 intensity of resolution is pervaded by a decision, a com- 
 bativeness of temper, a love of predominance and power, 
 which were allowed ample play in a life full of stirring 
 movement. The restless energy of the ambitious ecclesias- 
 tic, his youthful devotion and eagerness for knowledge, his 
 studies at Rome and Lyons, his journeys in Gaul and Italy, 
 his intrigues and quarrels and controversies, his thrice 
 repeated banishment from his diocese in Northumbria, and 
 chequered life as an exile, his mission among the Frisians 
 and South Saxons, his prominent figure in Roman conclave 
 and Northumbrian Witenagemot, are pictured in the vivid 
 narrative of Eddius* As a piece of clerical biography, 
 his work is unusually free from the baneful credulity of the 
 time, and comes nearer to the trustworthiness of sober 
 history than the conventional narrative of miracle and 
 monkish virtue, with a fact interspersed here and there, or 
 hidden under the haze of supernatural belief, which makes 
 up the greater part of the lives of the " holy men " of these 
 shadowy centuries. Even the accurate and painstaking 
 Bffida has filled page after page of his sober and lucid 
 history with the credulous stories of simple monk and 
 nun. The presence of only a few miracles in those of 
 Eddius is high praise of his historical sentiment, even if he 
 pretends to infallibility as an advocate. 
 
 A few years after Cuthbert's entry into Melrose, he was 
 transferred, along with some of his fellow-monks, to Ripon, 
 where Alchfrid of Deira, Oswy's son, had granted to Eata 
 forty hides of land for the erection and maintenance of a 
 monastery. He occupied the post of steward and almoner, 
 or dispenser of the hospitality of the establishment to 
 strangers and travellers and to the poor, for the monastery 
 of that time was likewise an inn where the wayfarer could 
 find shelter and refreshment. Such an office must have 
 been a very congenial one to the affable monk, whose 
 communicative mind took delight in recounting, for the 
 edification of his brethren, the traditions of the past, and 
 
 * " Vita Sancti Wilfridi, Episcopi Eboracensis, auctore Eddio Stephano 
 (ed. Gale). 
 
204 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 who listened to the talcs of those whom he entertained 
 with a spice of right worldly curiosity. His childlike 
 fancy sometimes discovered among his numerous guests 
 some angelic visitor, and it is not without regret that we 
 see them crumble into fable at the touch of the modern 
 critical spirit. Under the intolerant influence of Wilfrid, 
 the favour of their patron was withdrawn on their refusal 
 to accept the Roman Easter, and the monastery transferred 
 to its champion. On the death of Boisel, who about the 
 year 66 1 fell a victim to one of those pestilences, frequently 
 mentioned in the annals of the eighth century, Cuthbert 
 became his successor at Melro.se as prior and instructor in 
 the Scriptures and the monastic life. Though himself still 
 suffering from the effects of the plague, he spent the seven 
 days preceding the death of his old master by his bedside, 
 reading and meditating on the gospel of St John,* " seeking 
 only therein that simple faith which works by love, and not 
 troubling themselves with minute and subtle questions." t 
 
 Cuthbert followed the high ideal of his master in his 
 calling of prior and preacher. In the then meagre organi- 
 sation of the Church in this part of Northumbria, and the 
 consequent dearth of regular instruction, the Christianity 
 of many of the remote settlers must have been of a very 
 superficial character. While some of its ceremonies and 
 mysteries were blended with the remnants of the old 
 superstition, the knowledge and practice of its precepts 
 could only be very imperfect. Besides Melrose, Coludi (or 
 Coldingham) and Abercorn + were centres of Christian 
 effort, and probably the churches connected with the name 
 of Baldred § in East Lothian were already founded, but 
 
 * Simeon of Durham mentions this book as still preserved in that church 
 in his time. 
 
 t Bix;da, " Vita.S. Cuth.,"c. 8. 
 
 i The spread of Christianity in the north was zealously prosecuted some- 
 what later under the episcopate of Wilfrid, before the outbreak of the quarrel 
 with Oswy and ICcgfrid, which resulted in his banishment. " Under Bishop 
 Wilfrid," says Kddius (" Vita S. Wilfridi," ch. xxi.), " the churches were multi- 
 plied in the south among the Saxons, and in the north among the Picts. Scots, 
 and Britons, Wilfrid having ordained everywhere presbyters and deacons, and 
 governed new churches." One of these was Abercurnaig, or Abercorn. 
 
 § That Baldred was a person of reputation is evident from the fact that 
 he is mentioned in a \>aciu of Alcuin. 
 
THE PREACHER AND HIS RUSTIC AUDIENCE. 205 
 
 they do not appear to have exercised much influence on 
 the more outlj'ing districts among the hills of the southern 
 highlands of Scotland. The outbreak of a pestilence, or 
 the accident of a bad harvest, were regarded as evidence of 
 the worthlessness of the new religion, and drove the 
 people to seek help from the idols and enchantments of the 
 old. About this time, for instance, the East Saxons 
 sought to limit the ravages of a deadly plague by restor- 
 ing the temples and celebrating the rites from which they 
 had been converted by Cedd. The same tendency is 
 observable among the Anglian colonists of Twecddale, 
 Lauderdale, or Teviotdale, and what Jaruman did for the 
 former, Cuthbert accomplished for the latter. He fre- 
 quently interrupted the duties of the schoolmaster and the 
 monk by making a journey, sometimes on horseback, but 
 oftener on foot, into the remote hilly district where no 
 missionary had ever penetrated. Sometimes he spent as 
 much as a whole month thus wandering from hamlet to 
 hamlet — those clusters of wooden hovels in which the 
 shepherds of the upland glens and moors lived — preaching 
 as he went with a fervid eloquence that was not without its 
 effect on his rustic hearers. At every village a little 
 crowd of the inhabitants gathered around the strange 
 preacher. However unfamiliar his message might be, the 
 sympathetic insight, quick to read the souls of his audience, 
 lent it its peculiar fascination. " It was then the custom of 
 the English people that when a clerk or priest came into 
 the town they all at his command flocked together to hear 
 the word. But Cuthbert was so skilful an orator, so fond 
 was he of enforcing his subject, and such a brightness 
 appeared in his angelic face, that no man present presumed 
 to conceal from him the most hidden secrets of his heart, 
 but all openly confessed what they had done, because they 
 thought that guilt could not be concealed from him, and 
 thus wiped it off by worthy fruits of penance as he com- 
 manded them."* The childlike belief which peopled the 
 solitudes of these lonely hills and glens with ghostly forms 
 and powers, play a considerable role at these preachings. 
 
 * Bsda, " Hist. Eccl.," iv. 27. 
 
206 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 The powers of evil pursue him in his progress, watchful 
 to impair his influence, and to preserve their supremacy. 
 Once, while addressing the inhabitants of a village, the 
 devil tries to distract the attention of his hearers by en- 
 veloping a hut in flames, and all hurry off to fetch water 
 to quench it. It was apparently a false alarm, and the 
 preacher succeeds in vanquishing the wily foe by prayer, 
 and then improves the occasion by reproving the fickle- 
 ness of the people, and warning them against temptation, — 
 an incident which is an instructive index of the simplicity 
 of mind, both of preacher and hearer, and no less of Baeda 
 who most gravely relates it. But these long journeys, in 
 the midst of malevolent agencies, were not unmarked by 
 manifestations of a more pleasingly human kind. Here 
 and there a pious woman accords a ready welcome to the 
 hungry and weary traveller. On one occasion, while on a 
 journey to one of these remote mountain hamlets, his 
 patient faith finds means, on the approach of night, of 
 replenishing the empty wallet of his attendant. " Seest 
 thou that eagle overhead ? God is able to make it the 
 instrument of supplying our need, if He will ! " Run- 
 ning forward to where the bird had alighted on the bank 
 of the stream that watered the glen, the boy finds a fish 
 that it had dropped in its startled flight, and, leaving the 
 half for their unwilling benefactor, they make their supper 
 on the other in the hamlet where they find shelter for the 
 night. At another time, his prayers succeed in allaying a 
 fit of nervous excitement from which the wife of Hildemer, 
 the prefect or thegn of the district, was stricken ; and such a 
 triumph, in a quarter so influential, would not fail to carry 
 conviction to minds whose attitude towards Christianity 
 was largely influenced by the example of their superiors, 
 and may be taken as an example of what happened in 
 many districts of Northumbria. One of these journeys 
 extended into the wilds of Galloway,* where he must have 
 been entertained by the tales of the shadowy saint who 
 reposed in the monastery at Whithorn, and which was 
 soon to be revived as the seat of a bishop by the 
 
 • Haeda, " Vita .S. Cuth.," chs. x. and xi. Kirkcudbright remains as the 
 witness of his presence so far west. 
 
TEACHING DISCIPLINE AT LINDISFARNE. 20/ 
 
 Northumbrian Church. The extensive sway of King 
 Oswy, over the region from the H umber to the Tay, 
 which some years afterwards (669-678) was to form the 
 diocese of Wilfrid, doubtless widened the orbit of his 
 wanderings as the bearer of the Christian culture of the 
 time, although his name is specially associated with the 
 eastern lowlands.* 
 
 On the appointment of Eata (664) as abbot of Lindis- 
 farne in place of Colman, Cuthbert was entrusted with the 
 office of superintending and teaching the discipline of the 
 monastery. By his imperturbable gentleness and patience 
 he succeeded in restoring the unanimity among the com- 
 munity which the recent controversy had disturbed. Some 
 of the monks still rebelled against the innovations of the 
 Roman party, and taunted their prior with being a renegade 
 and subverter. But the tact and meekness of Cuthbert dis- 
 armed an opposition which he wearied out by his forbear- 
 ance, and at length changed into assent. Occasionally he 
 spent several nights in some retired spot in meditation and 
 prayer, or walked round the island finding inspiration, like 
 the Celtic monks, in the mystic gloom, the wild music of the 
 breakers, and the infinite dome above. At other times he 
 sought to disarm the power of the phantoms which lurked 
 in the bosom of the night, or to gain the reward of eternal 
 rest, by spending the hours while the others slept in doing 
 some manual labour or chanting the psalms. Like Columba, 
 he sometimes summoned his fellow-monks to join in these 
 nocturnal vigils ; and, as at Melrose, only interrupted this 
 intense application to the realisation of his monkish ideal, 
 by an occasional tour in the neighbourhood, to eliminate the 
 lingering traces of paganism, or to leaven the life of the 
 people by his teaching and example. Standing one day 
 near the mouth of the Tyne, whilst a storm lashes the sea 
 into great billows, he descries a boat laden with timber, 
 which, with its occupants, is in danger of being engulfed. 
 The peasants standing around began to scoff at the monks 
 of the monastery on the opposite bank, to whom the boat 
 belongs, and whose efforts to render assistance to their 
 
 * We have the authority of Dr Skene for asserting that Cuthbert founded 
 a church on the site of the present St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh. 
 
208 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 brethren are unavailing. " Nobody shall pray for them," 
 they cry, in answer to St Cuthbcrt's rebukes ; " may God 
 spare none of them, for they have taken away from us the 
 ancient rites and customs." But a sudden change of wind 
 drives the boat landwards, and the efficiency of Cuthbert's 
 intercession, to which the change is attributed, proves, of 
 course, the power of his God. 
 
 The m}'stic tendency by-and-by asserted its power over 
 the practical, and he retired (670) to lead a contemplative 
 life — that of an anchorite — on the islet of Fame, a few 
 miles east of Lindisfarne. This lonely spot had hitherto 
 been haunted by the malignant creations of the popular 
 fancy, which found in such solitudes a fitting abode for the 
 monsters of the old superstitions. To the overstrained 
 imagination of Cuthbert these were vivid realities ; but they 
 fled before the intrepidity of his faith, and left him un- 
 molested to erect, with the assistance of his fellow-monks, 
 his rude two-chambered cell of unhewn stones and turf, 
 with its roof of straw supported by a few rough poles. A 
 larger hut at the landing-place served as a shelter for visi- 
 tors from the monastery or strangers from the mainland. 
 These provided him with bread, which, with a little water 
 from the well in the rocky floor of his hut, formed his only 
 nourishment. Afterwards, however, desiring to maintain 
 himself after the example of the apostle and the famous 
 anchorites of byegone times, he obtained a little wheat from 
 the monastery and sowed it in a plot which he had tilled. 
 The soil not proving suitable, he substituted some barley, 
 and the crop thus reared supplied his simple wants. At 
 first he allowed himself the relaxation of a chat with the 
 monks from Lindisfarne, but as the fascination of solitude 
 strengthened the influence of a morbid spiritualism over his 
 mind, he denied himself even this indulgence, and sought 
 the attainment of his unnatural ideal in the neglect of his 
 person, and in the almost complete seclusion from both 
 nature and human society. The gloom of his narrow cell was 
 rarely broken except when he opened the window to give 
 his blessing to some pilgrim, and the filth and discomfort 
 of his body contributed to the merits of his fasts and \ igils. 
 " So little heed did he pay to his body, for fear of neglect- 
 
A MORBID HALLUCINATION. 209 
 
 ing his soul, that he would spend a month without takinj^ 
 off his leathern gaiters. He sometimes kept his shoes on from 
 one Easter to another,and in consequence of the frequency of 
 his prayers and genuflexions he contracted a hard swelling 
 at the junction of the feet with the legs." Thus the striving 
 of the nobler souls of that old world to idealise the higher 
 nature of man sank to the level of a degrading and disgust- 
 in<i materialism, and made them the victims of a morbid 
 hallucination. The development of the moral and intellec- 
 tual nature was cramped by a superficial formalism. The 
 instinct of the time fastened on the legal side of Christianity, 
 and reduced it to an absurdity by its puerile excesses. 
 Intensity and earnestness there are in that striving to realise 
 the highest good, but they are concerned with trivialities. 
 The imagination alone of the soul's faculties finds full play, 
 but instead of inspiring and enriching the mind with a 
 fuller life, it withers its growth by its sickly touch. It is a 
 child's world, without its simplicity and poetry, for what 
 would be charming and ingenuous in the child is repulsive 
 and unworthy in the man. " How many times," he com- 
 plains, " have the powers of evil pushed me headlong from 
 yonder high rock, how often persecuted and discouraged 
 me by their apparitions, how often endangered my life by 
 the stones they hurled at me I " This is the age of vision 
 and miracle ; the life of man is suffused with a mystic 
 element that transforms the poetry of the invisible and 
 spiritual into material realities. It is evident that these 
 Christian teachers — and Cuthbert is in this respect a con- 
 necting link between Celt and Saxon — gave to the mind a 
 false bent, whose influence may be traced for centuries, and 
 which does not improve by contrast with the tendency of 
 the classic culture, which it largely displaced throughout 
 mediaeval times, 
 
 " The extravagant tales which display the fiction, without 
 the genius of poetry, have seriously affected the reason, the 
 faith, and the morals of the Christians. Their credulity 
 debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind ; they cor- 
 rupted the evidence of history, and superstition gradually 
 extinguished the hostile light of philosophy and science. 
 Every mode of religious worship which had been practised 
 
 o 
 
2IO CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 by the saints, every mysterious doctrine which they believed, 
 was fortified by the sanction of divine revelation, and all 
 the manly virtues were oppressed by the servile and pusil- 
 lanimous reign of the monks. If it be possible to measure 
 the interval between the philosophic writings of Cicero and 
 the sacred legend of Theodoret, between the character of 
 Cato and that of Simeon, we may appreciate the memor- 
 able revolution which was accomplished in the Roman 
 empire within a period of five hundred years." * This is 
 severe criticism, yet it is not unfounded, as we may see 
 from a few atrocious examples in Celtic hagiology. Finchna, 
 like Ite, caused his body to be eaten into by chafers or 
 stag beetles, and even slept with corpses brought for 
 burial. Findean wore a girdle of iron that cut to the 
 bone. Ciaran mixed his bread with sand. Mochua lived 
 in "a prison of stone," apparently walled up, with only a 
 little aperture left for letting food down to him.t And yet 
 there is intensity in it all. It produced, too, its cathedrals, 
 — fitted to rival Roman basilica or Greek temple, — with 
 their earnest grandeur, their demons, and fantastic horrors. 
 It exercised, too, a practical influence. Hundreds of pil- 
 grims sought the cell of Cuthbert. The miserable hovel on 
 the islet of Fame stands in the foreground of the picture 
 of the religious life characteristic of the period. " Allured 
 by the fame of his virtues, a great many persons came, not 
 only from the neighbouring district of Lindisfarne, but 
 also from the remoter parts of Britain, to confess to the 
 man of God the sins which they had committed, or to lay 
 before him the temptations of demons under which they 
 suffered, or at least those troubles with which they were 
 afflicted in common with all men. For, by laying bare 
 their distresses to one of so great sanctity, they hoped to 
 receive consolation. Nor did their hope deceive them. 
 For no one departed from him without joy and consolation, 
 and the sorrow of mind which each man brought with 
 him accompanied him no more on his departure. For 
 Cuthbert knew to refresh the mourner with pious exhorta- 
 tions ; he knew how to remind those in tribulation of the 
 
 * Gibbon, "Decline and Kill," vol. vi., p. 254 (Mil.'s edit.). 
 + 5tff Stokes, " Anccdota Oxeniensia," v., pref. c. xviii. 
 
CUTHBERT THE BISHOP. 211 
 
 joys of heavenly life, and to show that both the smiles and 
 frowns of the world are equally transient. He was skilled 
 in revealing to those who are tempted the manifold wiles 
 of the old enemy. He showed how readily the soul that 
 was void of brotherly or divine love might be taken 
 prisoner, and how he that walked in the strength of entire 
 faith might pass safely through the snares of the adversary, 
 with the Lord's assistance, like as through the threads of a 
 spider's web." * 
 
 His reputation as a paragon of sanctity, and a sort of 
 Christian wonder doctor, secured in 684 his election by the 
 Synod of Twyford, on the Alne, as Bishop of Hagulstadf 
 (Hexham), afterwards exchanged at his request for that of 
 Lindisfarne. Only the entreaty of King Ecgfrid himself 
 could draw him from his solitude, and, like Aidan, he per- 
 .severed, amid the toils of the episcopal office, in the pursuit 
 of his monkish ideal. In the zealous bishop, wandering 
 from place to place in apostolic fashion, we recognise the 
 self-denying preacher of the Border uplands. It is the 
 same intense yet sympathetic personality that impresses by 
 its eloquence, and touches the hearts of the people by its 
 penetration. For the renewed miracles which accom- 
 panied his labours we are indebted to the credulity and 
 loquacity of his attendant Baldhelm, " who used to relate 
 the virtues of Cuthbert with great sweetness ;" but a better 
 evidence of their benevolent efficacy is to be found in his 
 advocacy of the rights of the weak against the strong, in 
 his compassionate care for the infirm and the destitute, in 
 his sympathy with the sorrowful, and his eloquent appeal 
 in favour of the higher life. During his episcopate a plague 
 wrought frightful havoc among the population, some of the 
 villages being deserted by the few survivors, while others 
 contained but a fraction of their former inhabitants. In 
 such scenes of death and pestilence the admonitions of the 
 preacher did not fall on careless ears, and the belief in their 
 power gave a healing efficacy in not a few cases to his 
 prayers. We find him, for instance, entering a village, and 
 after comforting and admonishing the few surviving in- 
 
 * " Vita S. Cuthberti,'' ch. xxii. (Stevenson's translation). 
 
 + Northumbria had by this time been divided into several bishoprics. 
 
212 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 habitants, he turns to his attendant and asks whether there 
 is still any one whom he may visit. The priest points to a 
 woman standing at a short distance, supporting her sick 
 child in her arms, and weeping over the recent loss of 
 another. Kissing the little sufferer, Cuthbert comforts its 
 mother with the prophecy of its speedy recovery. Widely 
 different as is the spirit of the age compared with ours, 
 human nature is the same. Sorrow, affection, sympathy, 
 — humanity in the complexity of its experiences, — reflect 
 themselves in the mirror of history, whether in the seventh 
 or the nineteenth century. 
 
 To the ravages of pestilence was added the gloom of 
 national calamity. Under the vigorous rule of Ecgfrid 
 (670-685) Northumbria reached the height of its greatness. 
 A battle wath the Mercian king Wulfhere, who had ren- 
 dered the subjection of the kingdom to Northumbria little 
 more than nominal, reasserted the supremacy of the north- 
 ern kings. A quarrel with the Britons of Strathclyde, who, 
 since the victories of Ethelfrith at Chester and Degsastane, 
 had apparently enjoyed immunity from Saxon aggression, 
 resulted in the extension of his authority to the north- 
 west. His army even attempted the conquest of Ireland 
 (684), plundering the churches and monasteries, and burn- 
 ing the towns and villages of the coast, in revenge for the 
 obstinate defence of the natives, which prevented the sub- 
 jection of the interior. In the bloodshed and injustice 
 which marked this career of aggression, Cuthbert perceived 
 the shadow of coming Nemesis. Elfleda, the successor of 
 Hilda at Whitby, sharing the anxiety with which he re- 
 garded the questionable triumphs of her brother, consulted 
 the man of God, who prophesies his speedy death. The 
 same year Ecgfrid led his army bej-ond the Forth, to 
 confirm and extend the conquests of his father Oswy 
 among the Picts, who had become restive under the rule of 
 the alien. The upshot was the battle of Nechtansmere 
 (685), and the death of the king and the greater portion of 
 his army. That which Cuthbert had feared as certain to 
 accrue from the restless and reckless character of Ecgfrid 
 had found its speedy fulfilment, lie had come to Carlisle 
 (Lugubalia) in answer to the summons of Queen Ermen- 
 
NATIONAL CALAMITY. 215 
 
 burga, anxiously awaiting there, in her sister's monastery, 
 news of the expedition. On the morning after his arrival, 
 he was taken to see the remains of the Roman works in 
 and around the town. The threatening aspect of the sky 
 intensified the thoughts of disaster that oppressed his 
 mind. " Do you see how wonderfully the air is changed 
 and disturbed ? " he asked those to whom he had communi- 
 cated his fears, and who were inclined to a more hopeful 
 view. " Who is able to investigate the judgments of the 
 Almighty ? " Then came the fatal news, and the Queen, 
 receiving from Cuthbert consecration to the religious life, 
 swelled the long list of royal personages who in these rude, 
 changeful times ended a life of pleasure or turmoil in the 
 quiet of the monastery. 
 
 In the same city two years later (687) the foreboding 
 of his own decease came to him. " Remember, brother 
 Herbert," said the bishop to an aged friend, an anchorite, 
 who lived on an islet in the lake that feeds the Derwent, 
 and who had annually visited the cell of Cuthbert, — "re- 
 member to ask me at this time all the questions you desire 
 to have resolved, and say all you design, for we shall see one 
 another no more in this world, for I am sure that the time 
 of my dissolution is at hand, and I shall speedily put off 
 the tabernacle of the flesh." " I beseech you," replied his 
 aged friend, falling on his knees, " not to forsake me, but to 
 remember your most faithful companion, and to entreat the 
 Supreme Goodness that, as we served Him together on earth, 
 we may depart together to behold His bliss in heaven." 
 Cuthbert assented, and bade him an affectionate adieu, and, 
 after visiting the churches and monasteries in his diocese, 
 withdrew to his cell on Fame to prepare for his death by 
 prayer and meditation. After several weeks' illness in the 
 solitude of his island home, attended lovingly towards the 
 end by a number of the monks from Lindisfarne, the 
 tidings of his death were flashed by a torch across the 
 narrow sound to the watchers on Lindisfarne. His last 
 words show a trace of the strife which had stirred the minds 
 of men during the bitter quarrels between Wilfrid, on the 
 one hand, who claimed exemption from all interference in 
 his pretentious rights and functions, on the part of the 
 
214 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND, 
 
 secular power, and Oswy and Ecgfrid on the other. There 
 is in them, too, an echo of the ecclesiastical strife by which 
 Celt and Saxon, to both of whom Cuthbert belongs, had 
 for a time parted company. " Keep peace with one another 
 and heavenly charity, . . . and maintain concord with 
 other servants of God. Despise not those of the household 
 of faith who come to you seeking hospitality, but be careful 
 to receive such, to entertain them, and to send them away 
 with friendly kindness. . . . But with those that err 
 from the unity of the Catholic peace, either by not celebrat- 
 ing Easter at the proper time, or by living perversely, have 
 no communion." * 
 
 * Bjeria, " Vita," c. 39. 
 
MEAGRE LITERARY SOURCES. 21 5 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DEGENERATION AND DECAY. 
 
 OUR information as to the history of Scotland during 
 the fo'ur centuries succeeding the ecclesiastical 
 revolution in the time of King Nechtan — during 
 the period that elapsed before Celtic Scotland became 
 feudal Scotland — is of a very fragmentary character. A 
 few notes of events in the Pictish Chronicle and the Irish 
 Annals, some glimpses from the " History " of Simeon of 
 Durham and the "Historia Britonum" of Nennius, the Book 
 of Deer, and the Lives of Blaithmac and Caddroe, the 
 Register of St Andrews,* and a stray tradition that has sur- 
 vived in the writers of later times, contribute the meagre 
 literary sources from which the student of the culture of this 
 period must draw his materials. Happily they are supple- 
 mented from the storehouse of archaeological remains, such 
 as stone and metal work, which have been investigated by 
 authorities like Anderson and Stuart. 
 
 The political and ecclesiastical history, which had for- 
 merly been utterly distorted by the romancing genius of 
 John of Fordun, Hector Boece, and George Buchanan, has 
 been reconstructed in a critical spirit by Robertson, Reeves, 
 Burton, Skene, and Rhys.f Though there must perforce 
 be a good deal of guessing and mere inference in such 
 attempts, the horizon of the political movement in the north 
 during these dim centuries has at any rate been cleared of 
 much of the mirage of fable, and leading events established 
 with reasonable certainty. Happily it forms no part of my 
 task to treat the reader to a minute and tiresome analysis 
 of the meagre records of the time for the purpose of arriving 
 at historic fact. I merely refer to them in so far as they 
 
 * The Register itself has been lost, but extracts have been preserved. 
 
 t I refer to such well-known works as " Scotland under her Early Kings," 
 " The Culdees of the British Isles," " Celtic Scotland," Burton's " History of 
 Scotland," and the " Rhind Lectures" by Rhys [Scoitisk Revieio for 1890 
 and 1S91). 
 
2l6 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 have something to tell us of the condition of the country 
 and its culture up to the time that Celtic Scotland merged 
 into feudal Scotland, and seek to supplement the story by 
 the testimony of archaeology. 
 
 At the beginning of the eighth century North Britain 
 was divided into four independent States. The kings of 
 the Picts ruled over all the territory to the north of the 
 Forth and Clyde, with the exception of Argyleshire or Dal- 
 riada, which was possessed by Scottish immigrants from 
 Ireland, consisting of the three tribes of Loarn, Connal, and 
 Gabran, under their own line of kings. Strathclyde formed 
 another principality, whose capital was at Alclyde or Dum- 
 barton ; while the country to the cast between the Forth 
 and Tweed remained part of the kingdom of Northumbria. 
 No portion of these territories, which together subse- 
 quently formed the kingdom of Scotland, was then known 
 by that name. Scotia was applied exclusively to Ireland, 
 and the Scots were understood by all writers, previous to 
 the eleventh century, as the inhabitants of that country. 
 Only when the Scoto-Pictish kings had succeeded in unit- 
 ing the various territories co-extensive with modern Scot- 
 land under their sway, was the name of Scotia applicable to 
 North Britain in the modern sense. The first important 
 step in this direction was the accession of Kenneth M'Alpin, 
 King of Dalriada, but related through his mother to the 
 Pictish dynasty, who took advantage of a crushing defeat, 
 inflicted by the Danes on the Picts, to cross Drumalban, and 
 possess him.self of a portion of Pictavia or Alba. By the 
 year 844 he had quelled all opposition, and asserted his 
 supremacy over the remainder. A century later Strath- 
 clyde was ceded to Malcolm, son of Donald, though it 
 retained its native kings, in dependence on the monarchs of 
 Alba, down to the time of David, who first became Prince 
 of Strathclyde, and afterwards, as King of Scotland, united 
 it to the Scottish crown. The conquest of Lothian had 
 long been the striving of the Pictish kings, and the object 
 of many battles between the Picts and the Northumbrians. 
 The accession of many of the kings of the former, down to 
 Malcolm, the son of Kenneth, was marked by a bloody contest 
 with those of the latter, who, with the exception of a brief 
 
DANES AND NORWEGIANS. 21/ 
 
 interval under Eadbert, about the middle of the eighth cen- 
 tury, had never been able to wield the extensive sway which 
 had cast such a lustre on the reigns of Oswy and Ecgfrid. 
 The victory of Carham (1018) at length made the Tweed, 
 instead of the Forth, the southern boundary of Malcolm's 
 kingdom, and by the middle of this century the usurper 
 Macbeth (1039-56), who, as Mormaer of Moray, had a strong 
 hold in the north, brought under his sway the districts 
 beyond the Moray Firth, which had owned the jurisdiction 
 of Norwegia.n jarls, so that he was supreme ruler from the 
 Cheviots to the Pentland Firth. The Western Isles, with 
 Orkney and Shetland, were under Norse domination. 
 During the one hundred and fifty years between the com- 
 mencement of the ninth century and the middle of the 
 tenth, these fierce invaders — Danes and Norwegians, gene- 
 rally known as Vikings and Norsemen — had made incessant 
 descents on the coasts of Britain. Attacks like those on 
 Lindisfarne (793) and lona (795), which had plunder for 
 their object, were followed by protracted attempts at 
 conquest. Simeon of Durham, for instance, describes their 
 incursions into the heart of Northumbria in the first part of 
 the tenth century, ravaging the defenceless country, and, 
 after wintering near the Tyne, attacking the Galwegian 
 Picts and the Strathclyde Britons. It was the effect of a 
 formidable Danish invasion in breaking the power of the 
 Picts that enabled M'Alpin to take possession of the Pictish 
 throne. The inhabitants of North as well as South Britain 
 lived in constant dread of the inroads of these fierce Norse- 
 men, who, like their forerunners, the Saxon pirates from the 
 banks of the Elbe and the Frisian flats four hundred years 
 earlier, came at first to slay and burn, and then to take pos- 
 session of the districts they had laid waste. But while they 
 succeeded in seizing large tracts in England, and giving to 
 that country a race of Scandinavian kings, their hold in 
 Scotland was confined to the Western Isles, and the extreme 
 north, where they left their mark on the language and 
 monumental remains of the people. W" hat with these con- 
 tinual attacks on the part of a race whose business and 
 pastime alike lay in war, the ever-recurring combats between 
 the Picts and the Northumbrians, between both and the 
 
2l8 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 l^ritons of Strathclydc, the traces of internal feud between 
 clan and clan, the murder of kings and the feebleness of 
 justice, the condition of the people was one of extreme dis- 
 order and misery throughout this dark interval in the records 
 of our country. A glance at the " Chronicles " * emphasises 
 this with monotonous distinctness. 
 
 " Kenneth, son of Alpin, invaded Saxony (later 
 name for Northumbria) six times, burned Dunbarre, and 
 took Marios (Melrose)." 
 
 "The Danes invaded Picta\-ia and Cluanan and Dun- 
 caldcn." 
 
 "The Norsemen laid waste Pictavia" (reign of Donald, 
 son of Constantine). 
 
 '■ Kenneth, son of Malcolm, wasted Saxony." 
 The " Historia Britonum " is as suggestive : — 
 " A.D. 750. — War between Picts and Britons, and the 
 king of the former, Talorgan, killed by the Britons." 
 " 870. — Castle of Alclyde destroyed by the pagans." 
 " 946. — Strathclyde devastated by the Saxons." 
 Noteworthy, too, is the recurrence of words like 
 " strages " and "jugulatio" in annalists like Tighernach, 
 who occasionally refers to the affairs of North Britain. 
 Yet there existed a machinery of government. Besides 
 the king, there v/ere the mormaer t or governor of a pro- 
 vince (apparently seven in number), the toisech or clan 
 chief, and the brehon or judge ; but in an age in which the 
 people must have been largely demoralised b\' being fami- 
 liarised with war and plunder, and force was the chief ruler, 
 their authority could not have been very powerful. 
 
 The record of tlic life of the Church is characterised by 
 the same meagrencss and indistinctness that set the chro- 
 niclers of a later age inventing kings, and romancing 
 about their exploits. It is a suggestive spectacle that of an 
 epoch disappearing from the horizon, and leaving but a 
 stray fact, a shadowy tradition of its existence, — all the 
 more so, inasmuch as it was as much a thing of oblivion to 
 those living comparatively near it, as it appears to us to- 
 
 * .Skene, "Chronicles of the Picts and Scots," pp. S and 9. 
 t These officers arc mentioned in marginal notes to the " Book of 
 Deer." 
 
MARTYRDOM OF BLAITHMAC. 219 
 
 day. No Breda, no Adamnan, to guide us through the 
 maze of those dim centuries. No outstanding figure h'ke 
 that of a Columba or a Cuthbert appears as the epitome 
 of the culture of his time. lona is still a centre of monas- 
 tic culture, but it already lives in its past glory — as the 
 shrine of the mighty dead. The dramatic element, which 
 enters so largely into the story of a great missionary 
 movement like that which circles round the lives of a 
 Columba or a Kentigern, an Aidan or a Cuthbert, gives 
 place to the curt and dry notes of the annalist. Neverthe- 
 less every age has its memories, and there is something 
 to tell, after, it must be confessed, a good deal of judicious 
 piecing together, of the life and work of the old Celtic 
 Church. 
 
 During the greater part of the eighth century we dis- 
 cover at lona a trace of intellectual activity of a kind, in 
 the continuance of the ecclesiastical bickerings, that stirred 
 the passions and exercised the dialectic skill of the dis- 
 putants at Whitby. Rival abbots kept alive the spirit of 
 discussion down to the year 772. The devotedness of the 
 golden age of Christian activity in early times is echoed 
 in the missionary zeal of Maelrubha at Applecross, and 
 throughout the North- Western Highlands. That the fervour 
 of a more heroic time lighted up the gathering darkness is 
 evident from the tragic story of the death of Blaithmac* 
 in 825, while bidding defiance, from the altar of the oratory 
 at lona, to the threats of the marauding Norsemen. " Who- 
 ever feels strong enough to suffer for the name of Christ," 
 cried Blaithmac to his fellow-monks, on receiving the tidings 
 of the pirates' approach, "' let him stay ; but let those whom 
 fear threatens to overcome hasten their flight, for the trial 
 of death draweth nigh." Thus sifted, a little band of 
 heroes, men of muscle and mighty faith, who might have 
 conquered at Marathon or Bannockburn, gathered round 
 their intrepid leader, and calmly awaited the stroke that 
 was to bring them the martyr's crown. At last came the 
 turn of Blaithmac. " Tell us," demanded the ruffians, 
 " where the treasure lies concealed." " Even if I knew, 
 
 * For his life — a metrical composition, by Walafrid Strabo — see Pinker- 
 ton, " Vita Sanctorum," p. 459. 
 
220 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 which I do not," exclaimed the saint (he had directed it to 
 be hid at a place unknown to him), " I would never betra\' 
 my trust," and fell, hacked in pieces by the swords of his 
 enraged assailants. On several subsequent occasions it 
 was the object of attack, and so late as 986 the heroism of 
 Blaithmac and his companions was equalled by the abbot 
 and fifteen of his monks, who preferred death to flight. A 
 similar scene took place on the Isle of May, which, like the 
 Bass, Inchcolm, and other isles on the east coast, was 
 sought out as a suitable retreat for a monastic establish- 
 ment, offering alike solitude for devotion, and a retreat 
 from the disorders of the times. Abbot Adrian, whom 
 tradition brings from the East with a royal following, but 
 who was far more probably an Irish monk of the name of 
 Odran,* was murdered with a large number of his com- 
 munity, and his martyrdom, like that of Blaithmac, was 
 evidently a much-talked-of event throughout these stormy 
 centuries, rich in weird scenes though they must have been. 
 While Walafrid Strabo, the erudite abbot of the monastery 
 of Reichenau, made the death of Blaithmac the theme of 
 his muse, Wyntoun has chronicled in verse that of his no 
 less dauntless contemporary. The monasteries, as the store- 
 houses of many valuable articles, — such as the gold and 
 silver shrines in which MSS., crosiers, &c., hallowed by the 
 memory of some saint, were placed, — naturally roused the 
 cupidity of those plundering bands, and invited almost 
 certain destruction, before the erection of a lofty round 
 tower, such as those that still stand at Abcrnethy, Brechin, 
 and Egiksay in Orkney, bade defiance to the fierce assail- 
 ants of the monks. There may be something in the idea,-f- 
 too, as explaining the fury shown by the Norsemen 
 towards the ministers of the Christian religion, that there 
 were among them many refugee Saxons, who, fleeing from 
 the cruel aggression of Charlemagne, turned pirates and 
 emigrants, and .sought to wreak vengeance on the faith 
 which they hated as the emblem of national oppression. 
 
 * See Stuart, "Records of the Priory of the Isle of May," Prcf., p. vi. 
 While lona was restored immediately after, the monastery in the Isle of 
 May lay in ruins till the time of Kinj; David. 
 
 t Burton, *' History of Scotland," vol. i. 
 
lONA SUPERSEDED AS RELIGIOUS CENTRE. 221 
 
 The constant exposure to the risk of attack led to tlic 
 removal of the remains and other relics of Columba, partly 
 to Kells in Ireland, partly to Dunkeld,* in the reign of 
 Kenneth M'Alpin, who established a community of Colum- 
 ban monks there. With the accession of a Scottish king to 
 the throne of the Picts, the Scottish monks would seem to 
 have regained some of the influence across Drumalban 
 which they had lost on their expulsion by King Ncchtan, 
 — a result for which the disappearance of all difference 
 from the secular clergy,t introduced from Northumbria, in 
 the matter of canonical usages, since the cessation of con- 
 troversy, would the more easily pave the way. Evidently, 
 too, some of the Columban communities, such as the very 
 ancient foundations of Deer and Turriff, which still existed 
 in the twelfth century, must have conformed to the injunc- 
 tions of King Nechtan, and thus escaped the banishment 
 preferred by most to the renunciation of the ancient cus- 
 toms. Though Dunkeld now appears to have occupied 
 the pre-eminence which belonged to lona, — to be soon 
 transferred first to Abernethy, and then permanently to 
 St x\ndrews, — the old shrine of Columba still possessed 
 the charm of a mighty name, and attracted many to pray 
 amid its hallowed memories. The monastic brotherhood 
 still continued under their abbots or " coarbs," who, however, 
 often resided in Ireland as the head of some cognate 
 establishment. 
 
 The unsettled and barbarous character of the times 
 necessarily exercised a very adverse influence on the re- 
 ligious condition of the country. If at the end of the tenth 
 century King Alfred could scarcely find, in many parts of 
 his kingdom, a single priest who could read, the state of 
 matters in Scotland must likewise in many cases have com- 
 pared badly with that under an Adamnan or a Columba. 
 The greater part of the lands which had been granted to 
 some abbot or holy man for the maintenance of religion 
 
 * The church had been founded by Constantine MacFergus about the 
 beginning of the ninth century. 
 
 t B^da (" Hist. Eccl.," v. 21) refers to the existence of a secular clergy, 
 when, speaking of King Nechtan's decree enforcing the Roman usages, he 
 remarked that "all the ministers of the altar and the monks adopted the 
 coronal tonsure." 
 
222 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 and education became the hereditary possession of some 
 chief or noble, who, while preserving the ecclesiastical title, 
 was really a secular lord. Thus what Baeda* laments and 
 reprobates as taking place in Xorthumbria, even in his com- 
 paratively early time, occurred with like disastrous results in 
 Alba. Moreover, the expulsion (in 717) of the greater part 
 of the Columban monks, furnished to every unprincipled 
 chief or noble an inviting opportunity of enriching himself 
 by seizing the church lands, with their privileges and 
 revenues, and merely retaining the title, while neglecting 
 the duties attached to it. For instance, Crinan, Abbot of 
 Dunkeld, appears as a great secular lord, at the beginning 
 of the eleventh century, who took an active part in the wars 
 of his time, and fell in battle ; while the Register of St 
 Andrews furnishes another case, of the revenues in possession 
 of laymen, the clerical duties being performed, on the most 
 niggardly allowance, by a humble community of Culdecs. 
 The most significant instance of this decay in the life and 
 organisation of the Church, resulting from the disorders of 
 the times, is the state of the ancient diocese of Kentigern, 
 as revealed by the inquisition ordered by King David in the 
 twelfth century. Not only had the episcopal office ceased 
 to exist, but the church lands had been entirel}' alienated 
 and the former churches had disappeared. 
 
 We miss, too. after a while, the active and once so 
 beneficent intercourse with Ireland. The barrier of the 
 Norse settlements in the Western Isles, Man, and the east 
 coast of Erin itself, interrupted the former close relations, 
 and isolated Scotland from the pristine source of its Celtic 
 Christian culture.! Ireland itself had indeed outlived its 
 golden age ; and England, if we may credit the description 
 of Asser in his " Life of Alfred," was sunk in the deepest 
 barbarism. In Caddroe, who flourished in the first half of 
 the tenth century, we perceive the last link in the golden 
 chain that for centuries bound Scotland and Ireland in the 
 unity of a culture, which once moulded that of Western 
 
 * Letter lo Egbert, Bishop of York, written in 734 or 735. 
 
 t We now and then light on the trace of intercourse with Rome. In S54, 
 the Al)l)ot of lona, Mureachtach, was slain by " the Saxons " while on his way 
 thither. In the latter half of the tenth century, Loot and Slu.igd.ich proceed 
 from St Andrews, apparently to obtain a decision regarding some quarrel. 
 
CADDROE, SCHOLAR AND TEACHER. 223 
 
 Europe. His life affords a suggestive glimpse of the religious 
 condition of the country. He was the son of noble parents, 
 in the district of Strathearn, who, being long childless, 
 made a pilgrimage to lona to pray for the intercession of 
 Columba. Some time after, the birth of a son rewards their 
 piety. The custom of fosterage was still common among 
 the Picts, and he is given over to the care of one of the 
 numerous friends, who competed for the honour of bringing 
 him up. After exhausting the means of instruction at his 
 disposal, probably in the school of Abernethy, supplemented 
 by his uncle Bcanus, to whom the church of Kinkell, in 
 Strathearn, was dedicated, he crosses to Ireland, and pro- 
 secutes at Armagh, still a famous school, the study of 
 poetry, oratory, philosophy, arithmetic, music, and astro- 
 nomy. After some years he returns to teach the knowledge 
 he had acquired at the great Irish university. " From the 
 time of Caddroe's arrival," continues his panegyrist, '•' none 
 of the wise men had crossed the sea, but dwelt in Ireland." 
 His fame attracts the notice of King Constantine (son of 
 JEdh, 900-943), but the spirit of adventure, blended with the 
 piety which discovered in a vision a divine call to leave his 
 native land, gives birth to the desire to travel. After bid- 
 ding adieu to the people in the church of Abernethy, he 
 took his departure southwards, in spite of the entreaties of 
 the king to remain, and added still another to the long roll 
 of Celtic monks who, in Gaul or Germany, won fame as 
 founders of monasteries and leaders of the religious life of 
 
 their time. 
 
 The rigour, if not the vigour, of the age of Columba 
 appears for a time, not in the secular clergy on the Roman 
 model, who replaced the refractory Scottish monks among 
 the Picts, but in the few Columban communities who con- 
 formed, such as presumably that of Deer, or re-established 
 themselves in the century following their expulsion, and in 
 the Culdee communities, like that of Lochleven, which 
 appear to have played a considerable ro/e throughout this 
 period. We first find them, representing a strict tendency, 
 amid the laxity that began to prevail in the Irish Church 
 towards the end of the eighth century. Maelruam, the Abbot 
 of Tallaght, gave the name of Cele-n-de—" friend," or 
 
224 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 " servant of God " * in the sense of rigorous piety — to the 
 community he gathered at this spot near Dubh'n, and for 
 whom he composed a rule of conduct. Reeves and Skene 
 are of opinion that they were established on the model of 
 the order of canons instituted by Chrodegang at Metz, 
 a class that joined the functions of secular clergy with the 
 regular life of monks. f They certainly came to form an 
 ecclesiastical order, for we find them in Scotland living in 
 communities, and continuing, until their decay, the spirit of 
 the old Columban monasteries, though not taking their 
 oricfin from lona. There were devotees from an earh- time 
 in the Celtic Church, as in the Church at large, who sought 
 the perfection of a solitary life of contemplation. Columba 
 and Kentigern occasionally practised this form of the ascetic 
 life ; whilst in the person of a Cormac, we have met a strik- 
 ing example of the persistence and heroism of those who 
 braved the waves in search of a " desert in the ocean." Their 
 first appearance in Alba, as a community, is in the establish- 
 ments of Servanus:|: at Culross and Lochleven about the begin- 
 ing of the eighth century. The legend of St Regulus§ reveals 
 the existence of a hermit community, along with a group of 
 secular clergy, at St Andrews at an early period. Charter 
 record furnishes the evidence of the existence at the begin- 
 ning of the twelfthcentury of such communities at Dunblane, 
 Abernethy, Lismore, Brechin, Muthil, Monymusk, lona, 
 Dornoch, Rosemarkie ; and Reeves thinks it probable that 
 they existed at many other places, such as Scone, Melrose, 
 Montrose, Arbirlot, Dull, &c. It has been the fate of the 
 early history of Scotland to give rise to a great deal of 
 learned verbiage, circling around some mysterious term, 
 such as Pict, and the word Culdee can almost vie with it in 
 notoriety of this sort. They have been regarded as heterodox 
 Christians of Druid origin on the one hand, and evangelical 
 
 * Skene thinks that the term was equivalent to Deicolne, worshippers of God. 
 It is certain, at any rate, that it denoted originally one who gave himself to the 
 ascetic service of God. 
 
 t This view is at least supported by a tradition representing the Cele Do 
 as coming over the sea in a miraculous manner, preaching to the Irish. 
 
 X There are some charters in the Register of St Andrews containing 
 various grants of land to St Servanus and the Keledei hermits in Lochleven. 
 
 § " Chronicles of the Picts and Scots," pp. 13S and 183. 
 
THE CULDEES. 225 
 
 pre.sbytcrians on the other. That they were neither is 
 certain, and judging from the ascetic tendency impHed in 
 the name, we may infer that, originally at any rate, they 
 were anchorites or hermits, who were afterwards organised 
 under canonical rule, just as man\- a great monastic order 
 has grown out of some small movement in the history of 
 the Church. As showing their pristine spirit, I may quote 
 a sentence or two from the Rule of the Cele De.* While 
 its directions are mostly of a trivial character, and we should 
 not call the intellectual standpoint of these devotees very 
 high, there are several of some moral importance. " Frequent 
 confession," we are told, " is of no profit when the violation 
 is frequent also." " Three works are obligatory every day 
 —prayer, labour, and reading ; and the work should consist 
 in giving instruction, writing, sewing of clothes or other 
 duty, which is profitable to do in order that there may be 
 no idleness."' For ordination by a bishop, evidence of 
 ability to instruct in religion and reading, of aptitude for 
 the care of souls, of knowledge of laws and rules, and the 
 proper remedy for sins, is necessary. One rule might be 
 recommended to those who are still troubled with scruples 
 as to attitudes of worship. It halves the difference in the 
 great question of standing or sitting at praise. " When a 
 Psalm is sung, it is to be sung by them successively standing 
 and sitting, for when they sit only it induces sleep, and if 
 they stand too long it is tiresome." 
 
 Like every religious order, the Culdees degenerated in 
 spirit and discipline, affected probably by the adverse influ- 
 ences of this period. It would be difficult to recognise in 
 the relaxed vigour,! the general worldliness of many of 
 their establishments in the time of David I., the devotion, 
 the moral strength of the days of St Serf. They had be- 
 come an antiquated and largely effete survival of another 
 age, and their religious establishments fell an easy prey to 
 the reforming zeal of Queen Margaret and her son, " the sair 
 sanct for the croon." This revival of life took again the 
 
 ♦Reeves, "Culdees," p. 48. 
 
 t While Turgot gives us a gloomy picture of the corruption of the Church 
 in Queen Margaret's time, exaggerated perhaps by the force of zeal for a dif- 
 ferent order of things, we find mention made of many hermits living in caves 
 and cells, and thus preserving the spirit of a former age. 
 
226 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 form of a renovation after an external model. The new 
 monastic orders of the mediaeval Roman Church — whose 
 ardent missionaries David and his mother proved them.selves 
 to be — along with the full-fledged diocesan episcopacy, under 
 the primacy of St Andrews and a parochial organisation, 
 took the place of the effete Culdees and the decayed 
 monastic system of the Celtic Church. Those splendid 
 ancient ruins — the lofty cathedrals, the massive monasteries, 
 from Caithness to Tweed, which we now behold with regret- 
 ful eye, and which marked such an advance on the simple 
 Celtic hamlet, and the rude Celtic oratory— form the best 
 tribute to the enlightenment, the love of art, and the soaring 
 conceptions which signalised this reform. Yet it takes us 
 back, by analogy at least, to the quickened religious life of 
 the age of Columba, whose already venerable monuments it 
 so largely swept away. The devoted enthusiasm of Queen 
 Margaret and her son, though taking its inspiration from 
 England and Rome, is a ray from the same sun of Christian 
 sentiment that threw its radiance over lona, and lighted up, 
 at one time, the country from the Orkneys to the Humber, 
 and even beyond. 
 
ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS. 227 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CELTIC MONASTERY. 
 
 IF the history of this long period of our past is but dim, 
 and we get only a glimpse here and there of its 
 culture from written record, we are fortunate in being 
 able to supplement it by the testimony of that more durable 
 record in the shape of objects which have survived the 
 ravages of the centuries. 
 
 Ireland, the ancient home of that Celtic Christian cul- 
 ture, which embraced Pict, Scot, and Saxon, penetrated to 
 Gaul and Italy, and attracted crowds of students from Britain 
 and the Continent to its monastic schools, is particularly 
 rich in architectural remains belonging to this period. We 
 are struck, however, by their simple and primitive charac- 
 ter, contrary to what we should expect in view of the high 
 intellectual culture of the Irish monastery of the seventh 
 and eighth centuries. The churches and ecclesiastical 
 dwellings or cells of these primitive Christian times re- 
 semble the buildings of the pagan period. On some remote 
 island, difficult of access, such as St Michael's Rock off 
 the coast of Kerry, or in some wild solitude among the 
 hills, the pilgrim may yet gaze on the ruined haunts of the 
 grim devotions of these cyclopean ancestors of ours. ^ A 
 few huts, built of stone, without mortar, and shaped like 
 beehives'; one or more structures, rectangular in form, 
 sometimes partly constructed with lime, and having the 
 doorway at the west, and a small window in the east, the 
 whole hamlet surrounded by a rath or cashel, if the inac- 
 cessibility or strength of the natural situation was not 
 deemed sufficient,— such was the primitive Celtic religious 
 establishment. The beehive huts were the dwellings of 
 these religious devotees ; the square structure served as an 
 oratory ; the rath, which, significantly enough, is found 
 
228 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 down to the twelfth century, to defend the establishment 
 from its enemies, who, in these unsettled times, were rife 
 enough. The remains of the earliest type of Celtic 
 Christian architecture which have survived in Scotland are 
 far rarer. Only a few spots — all islands * — show traces 
 of these beehive hamlets, yet they form an eloquent witness 
 of the religious life of a dim past.t The primitive oratory 
 gave place in Ireland and Scotland to the still rude church, 
 consisting of nave and chancel,:]: connected at first by a 
 doorway, and afterwards by the arch, and approaching the 
 superior art of mediaeval Christendom which displaced the 
 more primitive Celtic style. In the cases where wood was the 
 material used,— and this was so to such an extent that 
 Baeda takes note of the fact as a peculiarity of Celtic archi- 
 tecture,§ — the effects of decay and the ravages of the 
 Norsemen have obliterated many a monastic establishment, 
 whose ruins would have formed an instructive item in the 
 archaeological lore of the country. But we owe, as some 
 compensation, to the devastating attacks of the Norsemen, 
 the round towers, which remain as a curious and instruc- 
 tive relic of the old Celtic Church. Though connected 
 with churches, they served the purpose of strongholds 
 in time of feud or invasion, where the clergy could find 
 protection for themselves and their property. This 
 form of self-defence was common throughout Western 
 Europe, where their remains are not unknown, from 
 Brechin and Abernethy to St Maurice Epinal in Lorraine, 
 and Ravenna. [| 
 
 As in the case of the Celtic monks who carried 
 their learning to Gaul, Germany, Switzerland, and even 
 
 * One in Loch Columcille in .Skye, the Brough of Deerness in Orkney, 
 and Eilean na Naoimh, — the Hinba of Adamnan, — lying between Scarba 
 and Mull. 
 
 t Dr Petrie, an authority of no mean rank, accounts the ruins in Loch 
 Columcille " the most undoubted remains of a monastic establishment of .St 
 Columba's time." 
 
 X Ur Anderson discovered a trace of this development in the chapel of 
 St Mac O'Charmaig, and the church of Kilvicocharmaig with which it is 
 associated, on an island off the coast of Knapdalc. 
 
 § B;\;da was wrong in thinking the custom confined to the Britons. 
 Wooden erections were common among the P'ranks and the Saxons. 
 
 II 6"« Romilly Allen, " Monunicntal History df the British Church," p. loS. 
 
LITERARY ACTIVITY. 229 
 
 Italy, so in Scotland, though but scantil}-, the scholars 
 who studied and copied the Scriptures or the classics have 
 left, in the manuscripts which they wrote, the witness 
 of their taste and their learning. The extant copies which 
 we may claim for certain as the work of scribes * in the 
 monasteries of Alba, are the " Rook of Deer," and the 
 " Life of Columba " by Adam nan. That there were others 
 is evident, from the mention of books written in the Scotic 
 or Pictish dialect, — that is, in Gaelic or Irish, — to which 
 reference is made by the biographers of the twelfth century 
 and in the register of St Andrews.! As early as the 
 beginning of the eighth century there is evidence of this 
 kind of literary activity, in the transcription of Ceolfrid's 
 letter to Nechtan, copies of which were read throughout 
 the kingdom. The legendary Bonifacius — the Irish monk 
 Cuiritan, and founder of Rossmarkie — is, indeed, said to have 
 written a hundred and fifty books of the gospels ; and the 
 traditional notice of those possessed by other saints, like 
 Ternan and Fothad, indicates that the monasteries of Alba 
 were not without their libraries :|: of sacred, patristic, and 
 saintly literature. A glance at such a collection in some 
 Celtic monastery on the Continent will tell us more 
 definitely what its contents might have embraced. In a 
 catalogue of the books in the library of St Gall, — the 
 Latinised form of Cellach, its Irish founder, — compiled in 
 the first part of the ninth century, we find among the 
 thirt\--two volumes, " Scottice Scripti," — not merely works 
 of a Biblical character, such as gospels, epistles, and com- 
 mentaries, but the works of Virgil, Juvencus, and Prosper, 
 those of Bfeda on the " Metrical Art " and on the " Pro- 
 verbs," the '^ Life of St Hilary," and the " Martyrdom of 
 St Marcellus and Peter," the " Enchiridion of Augustine," 
 
 * At a later time we find the Ferleighin, or lecturer and annalist, such 
 as those at Turriff and Abernethy, taking the place of the scribe. 
 
 t The writer, speaking of the legend of .St Andrew, says he had tran- 
 scribed what he had found in " Veteribus Pictorum Libris"; and again, 
 referring to some charters of grants to Lochleven, that he had taken his 
 information from an old book, " Antiquo Scotorum Idiomate." 
 
 :t Among the property belonging to the oldest Culdee establishment in 
 the country, and seized by the Bishop of St Andrews, was a small library of 
 patristic books. 
 
230 CULTURE I\ EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 &c. There was a veritable literary workshop, consisting of 
 two storeys, the upper for the books, the lower for the 
 scribes. We have here, I take it, a vivid glimpse of the 
 intellectual life of the Celtic monastery, such as it might 
 have been at lona in its most flourishing days. Still further 
 distant, on the other side of the Alps, the travelling scholar 
 and monk from lona, or Durrow, or Bangor have left the 
 trace of their mental culture, to which we owe many a 
 literary treasure, so valuable now, as Zeuss, followed by 
 scholars like Rhys and Stokes, has conclusively shown, for 
 philological purposes. Preserved at Turin, Milan, Florence, 
 south of the Alps, and at St Gall, W'ur/.burg, Carlsruhe, &c., 
 on the north, and thus lost to the countries whence this 
 intellectual culture had its origin, they likewise remind 
 us of the supreme influence exercised by the Scottish 
 monks on the thought and knowledge of their time, from 
 the soft scenes of Italy even to the snows of Iceland. 
 Never at any other period have Scotland and Ireland pos- 
 sessed such a European reputation, such a far-reaching 
 importance ; and although we with difficulty recognise the 
 names by which the memory of these monks is associated 
 with the scenes of their labours over the vast area to which 
 their influence extended, it is but an act of patriotic appre- 
 ciation to remember such names as Columbanus and Gall, 
 Donnat and Kilian and Cataldo. 
 
 The " Book of Deer " * consists of the Gospel of St John 
 and parts of the other three evangelists, in Latin, along with 
 the Apostles' Creed, a fragment of an office for the visita- 
 tion of the sick, and some Gaelic marginal notes in writing, 
 which Dr Stuartf considers of ninth century date. The text, 
 according to the same authority, is that of the Vulgate, 
 interspersed by earlier versions of the New Testament. 
 The spelling and grammar are anything but classic.:^: So 
 is the art of the ornament, consisting of figures of the evan- 
 gelists and designs of a geometric character. But it would 
 be unfair to judge of the scholarship and artistic skill of the 
 
 * It was discovered at Cambridge in 1850, l)y Mr Bradsiiaw. 
 t " The Book of Deer, "edited for the Spalding Ckd) by John Stuart, LL. D. 
 t It shows us Latin as the ecclesiastical language, and Celtic as that uf the 
 country. 
 
ARTISTIC TASTE. 231 
 
 Celtic Church in Alba from one or two examples, especially 
 in the face of the high attainments of a Cummian or an 
 Adamnan, a Brendan or a Columbanus. Another MS. of 
 surpassing importance for the history of culture in Scot- 
 land during this period, is that of the "Life of Columba" by 
 Adamnan, discovered in 1845 by Dr Keller in a bookchest 
 in the monastery of Schaffhausen. Unlike " The Book of 
 Deer," whose author was too modest to give his name, 
 although he asks in a very humble spirit for the prayers of 
 the reader, a colophon informs us that the writer was 
 Dorbenc, very probably the abbot of that name who was 
 one of the successors of Adamnan and died in 713. The 
 character of the writing tallies with this date. It .shows, 
 too, unlike the Deer MS., no effort at artistic illumination 
 further than some daubs of paint in the large capitals. 
 How it came to find a long-forgotten resting-place in this 
 distant monastery is explained by the wandering spirit and 
 missionary zeal of the Celtic monks, who were as much at 
 home amid the lakes and mountains of Switzerland as amid 
 the lochs or hills of Alba or Scotia. A third MS. copy of 
 the Gospels, — now in Trinity College, Dublin, — very richly 
 illuminated, has a special interest as being ascribed to 
 Columba ; and there is at least no improbability in the 
 supposition that it was written in that busy study at lona, in 
 which the saint applied himself to reading and writing with 
 such laborious diligence. Another, "The Book of Kells,"the 
 most splendid of all, and surpassing in the beauty of its orna- 
 mentation even the gospels of Lindisfarne, — which, though 
 written by the Saxon Eadfrith, bishop of the old Celtic 
 monastery from 698 to 721, is ornamented in Celtic style, — is 
 also associated with the name of Columba,* though the 
 probability is that it was not written before the ninth century. 
 Unlike the Greek and Italian MSS. of contemporary date, 
 the initial letters of these Celtic books are of very large size, 
 and the designs by which they are beautified are merely 
 ornamental, not illustrative of the text, and are not inter- 
 calated. This art looks extremely rich and intricate; it be- 
 speaks apparently a fancy revelling in an extravagence of 
 form ; but it is reducible to the combination of three different 
 
 * Professor Westwood inclines to give credit to its early date. 
 
2 ?2 
 
 CL'I.TURK I\ EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 patterns, consisting of interlaced, spiral, and fret work, and 
 is often zoomorphic in character — making use, that is, of 
 animal forms, such as dragons, monsters, and birds' heads. 
 Many have expressed the admiration which a close study 
 of this peculiar national art has aroused in them. " It is 
 no exaggeration to say," remarks Miss Stokes,* of this 
 work, " that, as with the microscopic works of nature, the 
 stronger the magnifying power brought to bear on it, the 
 more is its perfection revealed, — no single false interlace- 
 ment, no uneven spiral curve, no faintest sign of a trem- 
 bling hand is ever visible." And Dr Anderson,! to whose 
 excellent resin/u^ of the subject of the Celtic MSS. relating 
 to Scotland, I am indebted for most of my information, 
 speaks in the same strain of enthusiasm of the unparalleled 
 beauty, the bewildering intricacy and minuteness of the 
 best specimens of this art. Some of them derived a special 
 value from their association — real or reputed — with some 
 great name, and were kept in costly cases of gold or 
 silver, studded with gems. Thus, apart from their artistic 
 beauty, or the worth of their contents, these venerable 
 MSS., and especially those connected with the name of 
 Columba, kept the memory and the inspiration of a great 
 life in touch with the minds of men. In this respect the 
 worship of the saints, the reverence for the past, served a 
 high utilitarian purpose ; and I the more willingly recognise 
 its practical value, that I have no sympathy with the super- 
 stitious form in which it found expression. We should 
 certainly not realise one of the great motive ideas of the 
 age did we overlook the power that survived in the memory 
 of a man like Columba. In this sense he was an apostle, a 
 prophet in death as well as in life. To this category of 
 things sacred to a great memor}-, and therefore possessing, 
 apart from their artistic value, a practical influence, we 
 may reckon the enshrined bells :J: and crosiers,§ the 
 Brecbannoch or banner of Columba, thought to bring vic- 
 
 * "Christian Inscriptions of Ireland," ii., \\ 144. In a similar strain 
 Waagcn and Westwood. 
 
 + " Scotland in Early Christian Times,'" i., lecture iv. 
 
 t Such as those discovered at Kirkmichael, Glassary, and Castle Guthrie. 
 
 § Those of Coluiulia and Eillan. 
 
CELTIC MONK NO PURITAN. 233 
 
 tory in time of war. It is a significant fact that the 
 asceticism, to which the Celtic monk subjected himself, thus 
 did not stifle the delight in ornament, in things of beauty. 
 The Calvinistic Puritanism, which took its place in modern 
 times, was in this respect far more fastidious and narrow. 
 Even yet it requires no small courage on the part of the 
 candidate for the favour of a Presbyterian congregation to 
 appear on the day of the preaching match with a ring on 
 his finger ! I have known more than one aspirant for a 
 parish who was prudent enough to denude himself of this 
 emblem of worldliness, and carry it in his vest pocket for 
 the occasion. The ancient Celtic monk was more rational 
 in this respect than the modern Presbyterian minister. He 
 appears to have been very fond of pretty trifles, nor did he 
 think, with the austere Calvin and his votaries, that this 
 fondness for beautiful things was incompatible with the 
 devotional sentiment. Hence the numerous objects of this 
 sort, — brooches, chains, &c., — which, though not used for a 
 sacred purpose, emanated from the monkish workshops, or 
 were made by those trained in them. Some of them, like 
 the Hunterston brooch, are remarkable for the beauty of 
 their art, which is identical with that of the MSS. As in 
 the study of the scribe, so in the workshop of the silver- 
 smith, we find a feeling for art, which is not without its 
 fascination for one who sees in it the index of a capacity 
 and a culture superior to that indicated by the ruins of their 
 humble dwellings, — the wattled hut, the beehive cell. It is, 
 too, a distinctive development on the metal work of pagan 
 times. " Celtic metal work of the Christian period, though 
 retaining some of the ornamental forms and processes 
 used previously, differs in many respects from the pagan 
 metal work."* 
 
 The artists who wrought these ornaments in silver, gold, 
 or bronze, had equally skilful fellow-craftsmen who wielded 
 the chisel and the mallet. Scotland, north of the Clyde and 
 the Forth, is rich in monumental remains connected with 
 the old Celtic Church. At Meigle, Glamis, Kirriemuir, 
 Aberlcmno, Arbroath, and as far north as Caithness, large 
 
 * Romilly Allen, " Monumental History of the British Church," pp. 
 166, 167. 
 
234 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 numbers of dressed slabs have been found, on which the 
 monkish sculptor hewed out the Celtic cross * on the obverse 
 side, and gave scope to his fantastic imagination and his 
 draughtsmanship in the figures of men and aiu'mals, the mys- 
 terious symbols of the comb, brush, &c., the spirals, fret, and 
 interlaced work, with which he ornamented the reverse side. 
 They contrast markedly with the undressed stones on which 
 the earlier pagan sculptors traced the s)mbols or hierogly- 
 phics that amused their fancy or nurtured their piety, and 
 which his more highly-trained Christian successor usually 
 retained,! Beyond the Grampians — along the West High- 
 lands, with lona as centre — we find a different series of 
 monuments, viz., freestanding crosses of Celtic form, :J: their 
 shafts placed in pedestals, and exhibiting the same style of 
 decoration — interlaced, fret, spiral work, and figure sub- 
 jects, minus, however, the mysterious symbols. In the 
 opinion of Dr Anderson, these highly decorated monuments 
 — dressed slabs and freestanding crosses — cannot be as- 
 signed an earlier date than the commencement of the tenth 
 century, whilst the {qw undressed stones situated in various 
 parts of the country, showing simply an incised cross, such as 
 at Ratho in Midlothian, Hawkhill near Alloa, and Arbirlot 
 in Forfarshire, &c., are inferred from their ruder character to 
 belong to the time preceding that century. It is evident, 
 at all events, that the intricate and elaborate style of art 
 which characterises the more highly decorated stones, — 
 whether slabs or freestanding crosses, — was derived from 
 the MSS., so that the scribes who illumined the copies 
 
 * The Celtic cross is notched at the intersection of the interlaced arms, in 
 contrast to the simple rectangular form of the Latin cross. 
 
 t Whether they are pagan or Christian is still a subject of dispute, however. 
 Anderson regards them as Christian symbols. See also Stuart, "Sculptured 
 Stones of Scotland," preface xii. and xiv. 
 
 t Besides these freestanding crosses, whose form and art are identical with 
 those of the slab monuments in the eastern district, there are numerous 
 examples which show a marked difTerence in both respects. They have a solid 
 circular head, from which the arms protrude ; and their decoration consists of 
 foliageous scrolls instead of the zoomorphic forms of the former. In the view 
 of Anderson and Romilly Allen, this feature indicates a later date (" Scotland 
 in Early Christian Times," 2nd series, p. S2 ; " Mon. Hist. Brit. Ch.," p. 
 159). The former thinks that they are subsequent to the twelfth century, and 
 they lie therefore outside the limits of our period. 
 
MANUSCRIPT AND MONUMENT. 235 
 
 of the gospels or missals of the Celtic monasteries were 
 the forerunners of the sculptors who applied their designs 
 to stone, or the artist who wrought in metal, and were 
 the founders of this early national school of decorative 
 art. Such an intricate style of ornamentation would natur- 
 ally be elaborated by the brush or the pen rather than the 
 chisel ; and at any rate the date assigned to the earlier MSS. 
 is considerably older than that of the monuments which 
 show a decoration corresponding in character. And as in 
 the ]\ISS., so in the monuments, the prevailing and there- 
 fore distinctive artistic idea is an arrangement of the spaces 
 decorated into panels, which are filled with symmetrically 
 arranged patterns.* Further, the character of these patterns 
 is the same on the monuments as in the MSS. — they con- 
 sist of interlaced lines, cither curved or rectilinear, some- 
 times zoomorphic, but oftener in simple squares, oblongs, 
 triangles, circles, &c., }'et so as to convey to the eye a rich 
 and varied effect ; of fretwork, that is, of straight lines 
 arranged in an ingenious variety of forms, but not inter- 
 laced ; and of spiral lines, singly or in groups, connected 
 with each other so as to form the most intricate combina- 
 tions.! Symmetry, conjoined with elaboration, resulting in 
 variety, seems to have been the aim of the artist, and he 
 might have fairly claimed the merit of having realised it. 
 The scribes of the monasteries who invented this style for 
 themselves were evidently men of fertile design, of instinctive 
 artistic conception. " To have produced the designs, im- 
 plies a culture of the imagination, a refinement of taste, and 
 a faculty of art composition, which are not always found 
 among men who are specially instructed, and which does 
 not exist at all among the masses of the community." :|: 
 Some of the figures of animals, with which this lavish, yet 
 symmetrical combination of lines to produce beauty of 
 effect is associated, are extremely spirited and true. The 
 
 * Anderson, "Scotland in Early Chris. Times," 2nd series, pp. 9S-100. 
 
 t Anderson (p. 132) thinks that this art was '' totally unknown " in pagan 
 time?, whereas Romilly Allen is of opinion (p. 14S) that the origin of spirals 
 may be traced to the metal work of pagan times. The germs of the fret and 
 interlaced work may, he thinks, have been introduced into this country with 
 the early MSS. of the gospels. 
 
 J Anderson, p. 107. 
 
236 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 human form is but poorly done, however, hardly equal to 
 what we should look for even among a people in a state of 
 barbarism, and there is, of course, a danger of finding more 
 art in these stones than there reall}- is. The strain of its 
 panegyrists seems to me to be pitched too high at times, 
 forgetting that the arrangement of lines is after all a piece 
 of ingenuity rather than art, and that the mere covering of 
 a square stone surface with figures of animals is a poor con- 
 ception of a plastic representation, when compared with the 
 master productions of sculpture in ancient or modern times. 
 But they are highly interesting and valuable as relics of a 
 past artistic culture. Such representations, simple and rude 
 though they be, have too something to tell us of the life and 
 the habits of the period to which they belong. "For instance," 
 says Dr Anderson,* " we learn from a comparison of all the 
 different representations, that the horsemen of that period 
 rode without spurs or stirrups, cropped the manes and tails 
 of their horses, used snaffle bridles with check rings and 
 ornamental rosettes, and sat upon peaked saddle cloths ; 
 that when journe}'ing on horseback, armed, they wore a 
 kilt-like dress, falling below mid-thigh, and a plaid across 
 the shoulders ; that they used long-bows in war and cross- 
 bows in hunting ; that their swords were long, broad- 
 bladed, double-edged, obtusely-pointed weapons, with 
 triangular pommels and straight guards ; that their spears 
 had long lozenge-shaped heads, while their bucklers were 
 round, and furnished with bosses ; that they fought on foot 
 with sword and buckler, and on horseback with sword, spear, 
 and shield ; that when journeying on foot they wore trews 
 or tight-fitting nether garments, and a plaid loosely wrapped 
 round the body, or a tight jerkin with sleeves and belt round 
 the waist ; that they wore their hair long, flowing, and curly, 
 sometimes with peaked beards, at other times with mous- 
 taches and shaven cheeks and chin ; that they used covered 
 chariots or two-wheeled carriages, with poles for draught 
 by two horses, the driver sitting on a seat over the pole, 
 the wheels having ornamental spokes ; that they used 
 chairs with side arms and high curved backs, sometimes 
 ornamented with heads of animals ; that their boats 
 
 * " Scotland in Early Christian Times," 2nd series, pp. 123-125. 
 
SERMONS IN STONES, 237 
 
 had high prows and stern-posts ; that the long dresses of 
 the ecclesiastics were richl>- embroidered ; that they walked 
 in loose short boots, and carried croziers and book 
 satchels." 
 
 Besides being to us illustrative of the life of the time, 
 these plastic representations are often symbolic. They were 
 meant to convey an object-lesson in religion to the spec- 
 tator. This custom passed from paganism into the Christian 
 Church. The figure of Orpheus, for example, was taken as 
 representing the Good Shepherd, the dragon which guarded 
 Andromeda at Joppa did duty for the whale in the story of 
 Jonah. This was especially the case in regard to the mere 
 accessories of the picture, such as winged genii, allegorical 
 figures of Victory, centaurs, caryatides, hippocampi, &c. 
 Thus, even in the Christian sculpture of remote Scotland 
 during this dim period, the forms of Roman and Greek 
 pagan art commingle with the representations of Christian 
 subjects. The likeness of Celtic Christian art in this 
 respect, as well as regards the idea symbolised, to that of 
 other countries which came under the influence of imperial 
 Rome, shows that Rome was the centre from which this 
 Christian symbolism spread. Naturally it underwent some 
 modification in the process of development to such remote 
 lands, and sometimes the stages of the process are difficult 
 to trace. The more common objects symbolised on stone 
 monuments in Italy and Gaul in early Christian times were 
 the temptation in Eden, the deluge, the drowning of the 
 Egyptians in the Red Sea, the sacrifice of Isaac, the trans- 
 lation of Elijah, Daniel in the den of lions, Jonah and the 
 whale, &c. At St Vigeans, Meigle, lona, Dunkeld, the 
 figure of Daniel surrounded by two or four lions is recog- 
 nisable as the same representation as those at Velletri or 
 Podgoritza. The position of the figure is a standing one, 
 with outstretched arms, and indicates the attitude of pra^'er. 
 The story of Jonah and the whale, sculptured on a highly 
 decorated monument at Dunfallandy, and on a stone now 
 at Abbotsford, — the whale, as in the Vatican Codex, being 
 represented as a quadruped, — was meant to symbolise 
 the resurrection. This idea is also figured by the raising 
 of Lazarus on the shaft of a cross at St Andrews. Other 
 
238 CULTURE IN EARLY SCOTLAND. 
 
 symbolic representations on the Scottish monuments, and 
 which are paralleled by similar ones in Gaul and Italy, 
 are the destruction of Pharaoh's army, the ascension of 
 Elijah, and the temptation iq Eden. The sculptor was 
 thus a moralist, and, like the architect before the invention 
 of printing, one of the prophets of his day. He spoke to 
 his fellows even in the details of his handiwork. From the 
 known tendency to moralise over the habits and characters 
 of animals, which ga\e rise to the mediaeval bestiaries, there 
 was doubtless a moral meaning conveyed by the figures of 
 the numerous animals sculptured on the monuments. In 
 seeing in some rude picture of the chase, for instance, the 
 lot of the soul when pursued by the passions, or the evil one, 
 the pious bystander was only doing what the faithful in all 
 the countries of the West were taught to see, from the fifth 
 to the twelfth century, as is indicated by the quaint moral 
 treatises in which the habits of the panther, lion, tiger, and 
 other animals are made the vehicle of useful moral instruc- 
 tion. The sculptor did not, however, leave his combinations 
 altogether to explain themselves, but occasionally scratched 
 an inscription in writing, which has received the name of 
 Ogham, from a note in the " Book of Ballymote" (a.D. 1391), 
 in which we are told that Ogma, " a man much skilled in 
 dialects and poetry," invented the system of Ogham writing 
 " for signs of secret speech known only to the learned." 
 Besides its presence on stone monuments, some plain, some 
 decorated in luxuriant style, in the eastern district of Scot- 
 land, from Fife to Shetland, it is found in the form of mar- 
 ginal notes in a number of MSS., such as that of Priscian 
 now at St Gall, and that of the "Annals of Innisfallen " in 
 the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It also occurs on as many 
 as one hundred stones in Ireland, and there are t\vent\'-five 
 examples in Wales and two in Devon,* but it is strictly 
 peculiar to the Celtic area. It consists of simple combina- 
 tions of short straight lines grouped about a stem line. On 
 eleven of the Welsh stones, as well as on the Newton stone in 
 Aberdeenshire, this peculiar writing is associated with Latin 
 
 * Romilly Allen (" Monunienlal History of the British Church") gives 
 weighty reasons for considering these inscribed monuments as marking 
 Christian tombs. 
 
OGHAM INSCRIPTIONS. 239 
 
 inscriptions in debased characters, and the application of 
 the Ballymote key shows that the one was merely a trans- 
 lation of the other. They yield no information beyond a 
 few names, but they form one of the most peculiar literary 
 curiosities, and are an additional indication of the ingenuity, 
 the literary tendency, of the Celtic monk. 
 
 Printed at the Darien Press, Bristo Place, Edinhirgh. 
 
ADDENDUM. 
 
 Since page ii was printed, the Rev. Mr Smith (Glasgow), at the 
 meeting of the British Association, at Edinburgh this year (August 
 1892), claimed to have discovered in gravel beds numerous traces of 
 Palaeolithic man in Scotland. He is in possession of 350 specimens 
 of stone implements which he believes to belong to this remote period. 
 
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